


House of Cards

by jjokkiri



Series: House of Cards [1]
Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: ??? - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Police, Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Alternate Universe - Thieves, Angst, Emotions, Family Issues, Fluff, M/M, Mentions of Sex, NaNoWriMo 2016, Organized Crime, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-01
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-03 12:42:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 54,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8714383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jjokkiri/pseuds/jjokkiri
Summary: World-renowned thieves Yoo Kihyun and Lee Minhyuk search the globe with their eyes set on a prize. Encountering stellar international police duo, Shin Hoseok and Chae Hyungwon, amidst their travels isn't supposed to be a part of the big picture, but neither are foolish love stories.





	1. first.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for 2016 National Novel Writing Month.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who cheered me on and encouraged me throughout the month of November, I couldn't have done it without you guys. I was too excited and am posting it before I finish all of my editing, but I sincerely hope that you enjoy this work as much as I am proud of it. Again, thank you so much, I love you all, sincerely and dearly!

Raindrops knocked a steady pattern on the sidewalk outside of the hotel window and Yoo Kihyun stood silently by the windowsill, smoke leaving his lips in gentle grey wisps, cigarette between his fingers and his eyes directed towards the ground, thirteen floors beneath where he stood. His fingers tapped an absent pattern against the frame of the glass, dark eyes studying the movement of people rushing along the streets of the city. There was something depressing about the rain showers in late spring.

Seoul City has nothing for him anymore, but he was used to the air in the city——found himself returning to the city whenever he felt homesick. It _isn’t_ home, though. It has never been——he had never really found himself wanting to settle into the city but, after months of jet-setting all around the world, returning to a city where everyone spoke his mother tongue was enough to pass as a temporary _home_. After all, it _is_ his home country and he couldn’t say that meant nothing——he was born on this soil and raised on the same ground.

Rising from the ground to where he was now, however, was a completely different story.

The hotel suite where he currently stood was worthy of a king, but perhaps, when he lead a life like this, he was worthy of such a title. Behind him, a luxurious king sized bed with silk sheets awaited the second he sunk into its soft, plush mattress and fell into a deep slumber; the walls set themselves far apart, spacious and comfortable; tiny details across every inch of the room coated itself in real gold——it was impressive to say the least.

And it really was a feat for someone like him. It was amazing that a mere _thief_ could scale the world, reign over his own life in sheer luxury and call it _common_. Kihyun, at twenty-five years of age, found himself living without a worry for how much he spent——financing was far from a concern for a thief of his caliber. And it hadn't always been like this because he could recall his childhood——the only son of a family with moderate income, who focused on his studies accordingly to his parents' wishes in order to pursue a better life for himself.

At nineteen years of age, Kihyun found himself stressed out over his studies and lacking inspiration for wherever he was headed in life, without his parents as a guide. It had been barely two years since he had lost his guardians in a tragic car accident, and a single night of trying to get rid of all the built-up stress in a club had changed his life completely.

He met Lee Minhyuk on the dance floor of a brightly lit nightclub, sometime after he’d finally gotten over the headache that the blazing lights and pounding bass had given him. Back then, Minhyuk stood out even more; a shock of white hair atop his head, bright eyes and a cheeky smile had offered him a night of thrill and pleasure, which he failed to decline. But, that was the start of a never-ending rollercoaster which had no exit in sight.

The morning after falling into bed with a stranger, he’d awoken in time to see Minhyuk picking through his belongings and attempting to swipe his wallet. He didn’t have much, but he was faster than Minhyuk. A slender hand had quickly pulled his things back and the white haired man had flashed a smile.

“You’re pretty impressive,” Minhyuk had said, eyes smiling along with the stretch of his lips. Kihyun had scoffed and brushed it off, as he shoved his wallet back into his jacket.

“I didn’t think I’d be sleeping with a thief,” Kihyun replied, dragging the covers back over himself and rolling his eyes with a huff. Minhyuk chuckled and casually took a seat on the bed, next to Kihyun and grinned at him——intent in his eyes, which had made Kihyun worry about his own well-being.

"You're quick. You have a sharp eye, too," the white-haired man remarked, sounding all too cheerful for someone who was just caught in the act of theft and for Kihyun to handle after a night of loud music and too much alcohol. "I could use someone like you."

Feeling defensive, Kihyun narrowed his eyes at the older man and frowned, “Use someone like me? What for?”

The dazzling smile Minhyuk flashed him could have blinded him, “You said your name was Kihyun, right?” Minhyuk didn’t wait for the confirmation, before he continued to speak, “That’s a nice name. What do you think about becoming my partner in crime, Kihyun?”

It had been the simplest proposal for a ticket to the life of crime which Kihyun had brushed off, kicking Minhyuk out of his apartment. The white haired man left his number with a cheeky smile and Kihyun, with a stressed mind after receiving the results of a hopeless exam and seriously having considered dropping out of university, had thrown caution to the wind when he had decidedly texted Minhyuk, a week after the proposal, and accepted it.

He was a young man without any leads as to where he was headed in life; losing his family and then hope, while everything was slipping through the spaces between his fingers. Taking a chance with a stranger’s requests couldn’t have been any worse than his current state. That was what he had decided when he chose to follow Minhyuk.

The older man met up with him just outside of the club they’d met in, and the intent to have Kihyun learn the ropes to his lifestyle had been immediate. Minhyuk explained his kleptomania to the younger man, and Kihyun had the urge to argue that Minhyuk’s urges lacked in certain aspects to classify as kleptomania, but the look on Minhyuk’s face told him to shut up as soon as he tried. Despite, the two of them clicked and worked wonders together shortly after, as Minhyuk had predicted when Kihyun had caught him in the act of attempting to steal his wallet.

Regardless of the criminal intent behind what they did, their teamwork was impressive and there wasn’t a single chance to deny that fact. They’re a dream team——a _miracle_ , considering the chance associated with their first meeting.

Kihyun quickly found his hidden compulsive stealing tendencies, alongside Minhyuk, and discovered his talents——strategizing and having the sharpest eye for where things may go wrong. There was a thrill in pocketing random things for no particular reason. From there, they escalate to a point where Minhyuk’s kleptomania isn’t the reason for their thieving anymore.

They find a different reason—— _profit_.

Minhyuk puts his skills and pointless urges to work, Kihyun becomes his operative brains and they share the profits when they bring their finds to the black market. The prices on the markets are irresistible and they find themselves becoming notorious in the underground society of thievery.

So, with Minhyuk by his side, Kihyun found himself travelling the country and researching treasures worth theft, swiping them and keeping them until museums caused uproars to search for their priceless artifacts. They’d take percentages of the profit the museums paid the black markets for their artifacts to return to their display cases.

Flash forward six years: it’s a wonder how he fell in love with a life like this, but when he thinks back to the thrill of running from cops alongside his partner and the pride of being regarded with amazed eyes by hundreds of clients, he could explain it all.

When he thinks of Lee Minhyuk, it also provides him with almost all the answers he needed to reason everything he did.

Kihyun doesn't ever really think about what his parents would think about his luxury, now and how he got there. He doesn't feel the guilt either because he reasoned with himself that the dead didn't have an opinion.

When the door of his hotel room opens, Kihyun doesn’t even flinch——merely brings his cigarette back to his lips and inhales slowly. His eyes continue to watch the rain pattering against the concrete sidewalk, outside. They had completed a deal and pocketed a cheque with a lot of zeros entailing a single number, the previous night; it’d be enough to spend for at least the next year. Minhyuk had been gone since early morning, but Kihyun hadn’t been too concerned, despite having a flight scheduled for late afternoon——Minhyuk always turned up in time for the important things.

“Welcome back,” he remarked, absently after he exhaled another cloud of smoke.

“How many packs have you smoked through, today?” Minhyuk’s voice came from the doorway, bright but amused.

Without turning around, the younger man ran his slender fingers through his mess of light brown locks and chuckled, “You make it sound like I smoke enough to dent our wallets and kill my lungs.”

“Well, don’t you?”

Minhyuk’s closer now——Kihyun could feel his presence stepping closer, though his footsteps were featherlight and silent. Typical of a thief.

“No,” he replied, easily. Kihyun’s slender fingers pulled the cigarette pack from the pocket of his jacket and arched an eyebrow at the now black haired man, flipping open the cover of the hard packet and revealing the fifteen sticks still in the box, “This is yesterday’s pack.”

“Only five in twenty-four hours, Kihyun? I’m impressed,” the other man grinned, wrapping his arms around Kihyun’s waist and leaning against him. “Are you slowly quitting? Does this mean now, I don’t need to worry about smelling like tobacco ashes, every time I pull something from our closet?”

The light brown haired man rolled his eyes, exhaling a cloud of smoke into Minhyuk’s face, “I’m not quitting, just because you said that.”

Laughing quietly into the crook of the smaller man’s neck, Minhyuk scoffed at the remark. They both know as a fact that there were a thousand reasons that Kihyun refused to quit smoking, and Minhyuk’s opinion had nothing to do with any of those reasons. Kihyun couldn’t care less about his partner’s opinion——especially when the black haired man had the tendency to steal his cigarettes at random hours of the night and act innocent.

“I like you better when you don’t reek of smoke, though,” Minhyuk remarked. At that, Kihyun smirked and turned to look back out the window, Minhyuk’s arms still wrapped around him.

“You like me, always.”

“I’d love to tell you that you’re right and boost your ego,” Minhyuk hummed, “But, that would be lying. I might be a criminal, but I’m not a liar.”

Kihyun rolled his eyes, “Oh, shut the fuck up with your preaching about being the saint I know you’re not. I get tired of your voice.”

"You're such a bad liar. You love my voice," Minhyuk drawled, eyes narrowing flirtatiously. Kihyun pushed at him but made no denial of the fact. Their six-year acquaintance has taught one another enough about how far they could push blatant lies.

Intent on changing the topic, Kihyun clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, extinguished his cigarette between his fingers and arched an eyebrow at his partner in crime, “Where have you been all morning? I woke up to an empty bed.”

"Did you miss me? Were you looking forward to round two?" the other man grinned. Kihyun groaned, closing his eyes in frustration and the black haired man laughed, "Of course you missed me, and of course, you were looking forward to round two. Too bad, hm?"

“Minhyuk, I don’t always want to have sex with you after we happen to close a good deal,” he answered. His eyes flickered to the clock, mentally noting their scheduled flight in an hour and a half.

The raven-haired man grinned, “Liar. You do.”

"You have five seconds to tell me where you went before I knock you out," Kihyun threatened, eyes flashing. Minhyuk laughed.

“But, then we’ll miss our flight.”

“No,” Kihyun said, “I’ll leave you in this shitty city and go to Vegas alone. _One_.”

“You wouldn’t,” Minhyuk chimed.

“Yes, I would. _Two_ ,” he retorted. Minhyuk raised an expectant eyebrow, “ _Three... four_.”

Sighing, Minhyuk pulled away from his embracing Kihyun and reached into his pocket, pulling out two pieces of paper.

Halting his counting, Kihyun’s eyes brightened at the sight of the familiar paper type——thick documents sealed with a black stamp. They’re contracts from the Underground Association——or at least, that was what they liked to call themselves. The contracts were from the ring of world renowned thieves who circulated amongst themselves the most difficult thieving tasks with the most coveted rewards.

_Minhyuk found them more jobs._

"Where for?" Kihyun asked, suddenly interested. Minhyuk had a specific taste when it came to picking tasks for the both of them, even though it was Kihyun who would end up planning everything. But, it always sparked his excitement, to say the least.

He reached for the documents, but Minhyuk pulled them away from his reach, turning on his heel and falling back onto the king sized bed——the sheets nearly drown the older man. Kihyun stepped away from the window and fixed his eyes on his partner, arms crossed over his chest and an eyebrow arched in curiosity.

The black haired man smiled, “ _The States_ ——not Vegas, but we’ll have our fun before we start, right?”

Kihyun grinned.

 

 ** _(_**                +              **_)_**

****

There are good pairings and there are bad pairings.

Matches made in Heaven do exist, but if anyone were to ask Chae Hyungwon what he thought of the pairing of himself and Shin Hoseok, he would refrain from commenting in fear of being much too harsh on his senior. Hyungwon was twenty-five years of age and had trained as an officer for practically all of his life. His mother had been an officer and he had followed in her footsteps with utmost pride.

The unit loved him, for he was every bit like his mother, Senior Special Agent Chae Hyerin. Upon her retirement from the specialization unit, Hyungwon had immediately been promoted to taking her place as the unit’s field officer.

Unfortunately, the one thing which his mother had excelled in which he failed to imitate was her collaborative skills. From the moment he was old enough and experienced enough to take field missions into his own hands, Hyungwon worked independently. And it's never been a problem, so he couldn't wrap his head around the whole idea of having to work with someone else when the unit announced the joining of their two best agents as a team.

There was no logical reason that he would have to pair up with another officer to complete a project when he could easily work on his own. His initial plan had been to boycott the entire assignment, but that had proved ineffective when he met his partner for the first time. Hoseok was also an independent agent; one who happened to be just a year older than him but having so much more experience.

To Chae Hyungwon, Shin Hoseok——fancy titles and all——is annoying. _So_ annoying. He made Hyungwon want to scream in frustration because he _never_ did anything _right_.

Their sixth assignment together (which involved a detainment and interviewing of a suspect) had Hyungwon feeling that intense need to scream, all over again. Simply because when you work alone, everything goes according to individual plans, but working with someone who didn’t listen was extremely stressful. Hyungwon would love to punch a wall. Or Hoseok, if it weren’t illegal to commit to battery of his own partner.

There were specific instructions given and Hoseok _failed_ him. _Of course, he did. He always did._ But, that’s just Hyungwon being bitter——Hoseok is _still_ the world’s best partner, no matter if he fucks up often (even if that _often_ is almost every day). And that might just be because Hyungwon wouldn’t like to work with anyone in the unit, but Hoseok was tolerable——it counts for _something_.

But, no matter how much Hoseok fucked up in Hyungwon’s books, they always seemed to complete missions and close cases without major issues. And maybe that’s why Hoseok was one of the best officer cum special agents in the unit. He covered his tracks and fixed his own issues like no one’s business——expected from a senior ranking officer with a cyber technology and securities intelligence specialization, but Hoseok easily did it better than anyone else in the unit holding the same title.

Hyungwon would never admit to being impressed by such things.

They worked decently together, contrary to their initial impression of one another. When they tried their best to tolerate one another, then their work proved to be exceptional and the unit boasted their skills in partnering up their best officers. Their skill sets complemented one another; anything Hyungwon lacked, Hoseok had him covered and vice versa. However, their personalities clashed and they tolerated one another at best.

Their latest mission had been a case opened for years. The report in the case files had missing artifacts associated with a pair of thieves who were seemingly unstoppable according to the past officers who attempted to close the case. The thieves were well enough known to have profiles and it came as a surprise to both Hoseok and Hyungwon to learn that they had never been caught.

Learning that said thieves were worldwide criminals changed that perspective entirely. They were unknowingly headed for a wild game of cat and mouse across continents when they had accepted the mission.

And they had been tracking the pair down for months.

“Have you gotten any leads?” Hyungwon asked the blond officer, who was surfing through their database. They’re at their headquarters in Los Angeles, and it would be the last time they could physically be in the building before their undercover mission officially began.

Several clicks sounded from Hoseok's mouse and he gritted his teeth, "I think I do."

“Do share,” Hyungwon got up from his seat and took a sip from the plastic coffee cup in his hands. “What are you getting? I really don’t want to hear Chief complaining about the lack of leads again.”

“I reached out to Jooheon, the other day,” Hoseok explained. Lee Jooheon, more commonly known across the sector simply as _Jooheon_ , was their best detective cum research officer and one of the many system manipulators in the unit. “I asked him to search for matches of identity and here, look at this.”

Following Hoseok’s instructions, Hyungwon leaned over to look at the laptop screen. The brunet furrowed his brows, puzzled.

“You’re showing me _flight itineraries_?”

“Our last chance at trying to track these guys down showed us that they were likely located in South Korea, somewhere,” Hoseok explained. “Jooheon looked up the histories and we’ve got tickets under the names _Lee Minhyuk_ and _Yoo Kihyun_ flying out from Incheon, tomorrow afternoon.”

Hyungwon arched an eyebrow, “What are the chances it’s them?”

Hoseok pursed his lips, clicking his mouse several times and furrowing his brows at the screen, "Well, what are the chances there are a Lee Minhyuk and a Yoo Kihyun on a flight _together_ from South Korea?”

The brunet narrowed his brows at the screen, “Can you get a document report? Passport numbers? Any kind of identification numbers?”

Hoseok ran his fingers through his blond locks and nodded, “Let me see if I can pull that up. Jooheon told me that the systems were glitching, recently. I don't think a cross-system search will give us anything if they're using South Korean passports." Several clicks and taps of his keyboard later, Hoseok pulled up the itinerary information and matched them with their system. It returns an error and the blond groaned, "I hate being right."

“This is the one time you’re right,” Hyungwon retorted. Hoseok glared at him, opening his mouth to say something, but then closing it again. “We can take a chance, right? This entire mission is already a wild goose chase around the face of the planet.” The brunet fixed the laptop screen with a silent glare, despite his own words.

And he groans, “What idiotic criminals book flights under their real names?”

The older man chuckled, “ _Them_.”

Hoseok got up from his seated position and closed his laptop. Reaching over to the coat rack and throwing his jacket over his shoulders, Hoseok offered Hyungwon a small smile, “Are you ready for a good time in Vegas, Officer Chae?”

“You’ve got to be kidding, we’re _working_.”

“Can’t arrest when they’re not doing anything wrong,” Hoseok chided, “We’re just going information hunting.”

And that’s another time that Hoseok is right——surprisingly enough, being twice in a day. Hyungwon grabbed his own jacket, following Hoseok out of the office. “What are the chances that we’ll get to Vegas before them?”

The blond officer chuckled, “Depends on how many traffic laws I’m willing to break.”

_“Hoseok.”_

"It's barely a five-hour drive, calm down," Hoseok laughed, "I'm not going to break any traffic laws. We enforce those, not break them."

“Our specific unit doesn’t,” Hyungwon replied.

Hoseok grinned, “So, does that mean I can break the traffic laws?”

 

 ** _(_**                +              **_)_**

 

Stepping into a life of thievery had started off with the random urge to pocket pointless things in the middle of luxurious shopping centres——with parents who made enough money to fund the lives of an entire small village, Lee Minhyuk could have had anything and everything he wanted. He only ever felt the need to steal whilst he was in his own domain——the shopping centres owned by his parents. He’d pocket the items and give them out to charities——the rich had enough money as it was.

He was raised to be the perfect heir and son, but it never interested him. There was something so much better in stealing. He started off with stealing stupid things: pens; watches; cufflinks——then, it became stealing ideas; cheating on tests and swiping assignments and submitting them as his own. At first, it was something to distract himself from the continued pressure of being _perfect_. Thievery happened to break him out of the haunting conscious which demanded that he never ruin his parents' images as high-class professionals. It was a _high_. It was an _escape_.

Still, he attended all of the social events hosted by his parents and acted the part of the perfect son——bright smiles, sweet words easily stealing hearts. And slowly, that secret life he led became apparent to his parents, when he began to excuse himself from the prim and proper events, only to be found in nightclubs in the same hour which he’d pleaded for extra studying.

They had been livid——stunned that their son had the nerve to lie to them about where he was and what he was doing.

If Minhyuk closed his eyes and really thought about it, then perhaps, he could remember the creases on his mother’s forehead when she worriedly held his hand and scolded him; the stern expression on his father’s face when he’d raised his voice and declared his _disappointment_ in his son. He’d remember his own nonchalance for the scolding and pretending to have cared about his parents’ words.

He was seventeen when he was caught and laid low for several months, pretending to have learned his lesson and acting as their perfect son again; eighteen when he continued his supposed _bad habits_ ; and nineteen when he met Yoo Kihyun. Somehow, he crossed paths with someone completely opposite to him and they’d developed a relationship which pulled Minhyuk further and further away from the will of his parents.

Exactly what he wanted, and exactly what they feared.

But, from a very young age, he had already considered himself estranged——all the family really cared for was the bottom line of all their financial statements. Minhyuk had too much of a heart to care for solely that; perhaps, it’s why he committed to theft and gave to the lesser fortunate. Perhaps, that was why he found such a fascination with Yoo Kihyun.

Kihyun, when he met him, had nothing he did. They were so drastically different from one another——so different that they clicked and worked together in such a way that they evened out the flaws the other had. They _completed_ one another, if one were to describe it in all the most cliché of terms.

And, unlike his parents, Kihyun didn’t give a care for who he was, or where he came from——he didn’t even care about Minhyuk’s reasons for stealing. He was in it for the thrill and the will to change his life.

That alone had sparked an affection somewhere deep in Minhyuk’s heart and with the passing months by one another’s sides——bawdy nights in the sheets; casually hooking up with one another; relying on one another when they had no one else; speaking their minds and having someone wholeheartedly supporting everything they believed in, no matter their differences——he foolishly let himself fall for his partner in crime, praying that Kihyun would catch him.

Kihyun didn’t.

There wasn't any room for affection in the younger man's heart. He rejected any feelings of affection——Minhyuk later learned on a drunken night that Kihyun was too afraid to love because he was afraid of losing what he loved. It happened once, and there wasn't any assurance that it wouldn't happen again.

But, before he learned more about the way Yoo Kihyun’s mind worked, they became _tense._ They avoided one another, when they didn’t need to speak for the purposes of work; they refused to make eye contact, unless it was a matter of life or death. Minhyuk's feelings got in the way of their seemingly impeccable chemistry and it all dwindled down to being unable to execute their projects accurately; almost losing their recognition in their field of work.

They're a match made in Heaven——a pair worth millions: years later, they're still working together, better than ever. They pushed past the barriers which Minhyuk's feelings had pushed onto them; learned more about one another and moulded to fit perfectly collaborate.

It took Minhyuk months to crush the emotions he’d developed for Kihyun: terribly difficult months, considering they hardly ever left one another’s sides. The younger man started a smoking habit to rid himself of the stress from the tense atmosphere around them; never really let it go, even after they returned to their original state of association.

Back then, it sparked his fingers to touch Kihyun——made a curious heart race; palpitating with nerves. But, perhaps, he’d mistaken some strange mixture of lust and endearment to be _love_. Between their self-developed assignments and tasks which they’d picked up from the Underground Association, lonely drunk nights almost pleaded them to rely on one another. There was nothing quite substantial in the temporary feelings he held for the younger man.

Everything else seemed to play out for the better, regardless. The pair pulled lessons from their experience——there was no room for affection in their field of work because it could make or break everything. Their career rode on diligent planning and timing; the smallest ounce of luck could prove everything they've ever done or ruin it all. Romance was a chance they couldn't take.

Not when they strived to be the best in the Underground Association.

Now, it meant nothing to touch Kihyun. Yet, nothing else really changed. It was back to square one: alike to the first day they met in a nightclub when they were nineteen years of age, somewhere in the streets of Seoul City; meaninglessly grabbing onto one another and stripping before falling into bed. Four years after Minhyuk forced the diminishing of his feelings, he still relied on Kihyun on drunk nights when they had no one else to hold in the middle of the night.

But, in Las Vegas, they’re hoping to forget about their careers for a night and Vegas reminded Minhyuk of his origins: sometimes, it felt like an escape; other times, it felt like home.

Luxury and bright lights flashed down at them whilst they scoured the streets for something to save them from their famished states. Minhyuk’s slender fingers held onto Kihyun’s wrist, hoping to not lose the younger man somewhere in the crowd of people. The watch on his wrist struck three hours before midnight and they hadn’t had anything to eat in nearly twenty-four hours——the blame easily put on their refusal to eat food provided by the airlines.

“Minhyuk,” Kihyun groaned, feet dragging as he walked behind him. The younger man’s stomach audibly growled and Minhyuk watched the street lights turn green, before continuing to drag the brunet with him.

“Yes, Kihyun?” he answered, arching an eyebrow but continuing to face forward and remaining intent on walking to their destination, knowing that he was unable to see his facial expression.

“Where are we going? I think I’m going to die of starvation, if we don’t stop somewhere and eat, soon,” Kihyun complained.

"We're going to get food," Minhyuk easily replied. He was familiar with the streets of Las Vegas, and it was amusing to him that after three visits to the city that Kihyun still hadn't mapped out the major streets in his head. But, it was always fun to mess with the younger man's head——it would be even better if Minhyuk wasn't also starving.

“Why can’t we just stop anywhere? Are you having cravings for something that’s like eight thousand miles away from here?”

Pulling the younger man to a stop in front of a small restaurant, he flashed a grin, "We can't go to any random place because we're meeting someone here."

Kihyun fixed the taller man with a puzzled expression, “Who the hell do we know in Las Vegas?”

“Me,” came a voice from behind Kihyun, strong arms wrapping around the smaller man’s waist and leaning against him. The sandy haired man’s eyes immediately widened with excitement when he turned to look at the person who had pulled him into an embrace. He was greeted with a man roughly his own height (less the added height of his combat boots) with a mess of ash hair, lips tugged into a smile and mischievous eyes.

“Changkyun!” he exclaimed, shrugging out of Minhyuk’s grip and throwing his arms around the newcomer.

Changkyun grinned and nudged him, “Hey. Did you forget that I’m always around for some fun when you’re in the States?”

“I could never forget about you,” Kihyun chided, eyes bright and excited.

The pair of thieves were fond of the youngest man——he was mysterious to say the least, but Lim Changkyun was the sole reason they’d made it out of one of their biggest thefts alive. He’d materialized out of a practical nowhere, when the sirens erupted into lamenting wails outside of the Parisian museum they’d broken into, and managed to pull them out of a tricky mess. That in itself was enough of a reason to trust him.

“I’d love to complain about how you’re lying, because I just heard you ask Minhyuk about who you might know in Las Vegas, but I think you both need some food in your stomachs, before I do that,” he remarked. Kihyun indignantly whined incoherently about how he was unaware of Changkyun being in Vegas for the time being and the youngest grinned in satisfaction, patting the brunet’s hair.

Minhyuk attached himself to Changkyun’s free arm, “On your card?”

“You two eat like monsters,” the ash haired man frowned. Minhyuk pouted at him, expression completely betraying his age; Kihyun quickly mimicked the expression. “But, fine. Just because it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you two. We’ve got a lot to catch up on.”

 

(               +              )

 

They spend hours in the diner, despite having long finished their meal; Minhyuk continued to order random appetizers and the three shared them (despite Changkyun complaining about the state of his credit card bill at the end of the month). Kihyun and Minhyuk both have sweet potato fries shoved into their mouths when Changkyun spoke up.

“I have a couple friends I want you two to meet.”

“Aren’t we bad influences?” Minhyuk immediately asked, mouth full of food. Kihyun elbowed him, narrowing his eyes at the brunet’s outburst. The eldest swallowed his food and made a face at Kihyun, “Sorry.”

“Bad influences?” Changkyun repeated with a smug grin. “You haven’t corrupted _me_ , yet.”

“You’re a baby, how could we ever corrupt you?” Kihyun exclaimed, trying to keep his voice down when the few other customers turned to look at them.

“Kihyun, I’m only three years younger than you!”

“That means when I was on my feet, walking and talking, you just crawled out of your mother. A _baby_.” Kihyun replied. “Aren’t you like twenty?”

“Twenty- _four._ I turned twenty-four in January,” Changkyun answered.

Minhyuk laughed, “So, just five months ago? We’re both turning twenty-six. I think we’re allowed to call you a _baby_.”

Changkyun fixed the eldest with a quiet stare and Minhyuk smiled.

“But, your friends,” Kihyun brought the topic back, “Who are they?”

“Just a couple guys who I think might be good friends with you two,” Changkyun answered. Kihyun rested his chin in his palm, elbow on the table and he hummed.

“Friends? With us?” he repeated, arching his brow.

“You say that like you can’t imagine yourselves with friends,” the ash haired man frowned, poking at his food with the fork and Minhyuk offered a smile.

“We can’t imagine ourselves with friends who aren’t like us,” Minhyuk corrected, eyes twinkling with amusement. It was only reasonable: _how do you befriend a criminal without the same mindset?_ Changkyun studied his friends with a small frown.

“Don’t you trust me?”

Kihyun immediately dropped his fork, swallowing his mouthful of fries——lips pulling into an unimpressed frown at the younger man’s words, “You know that we do, don’t say that. It’s just a little questionable to propose that we make some new friends. I’m just used to just being around Minhyuk, so you can’t really blame me, can you?”

“Fair enough,” Changkyun answered, sounding a little dejected, “But, at least give them a chance?”

Making a face, Minhyuk sighed and leaned against the table, nodding at Kihyun. It’s the younger who voices their decision, “Fine. We can bless them with our presence for a while.”

With an immediate smile, despite rolling his eyes good-naturedly at Kihyun’s remark, Changkyun nudged his friends.

“But, hey, listen: they’re _cute_.”

 

 ** _(_**                +              **_)_**

 

Shin Hoseok is a lot of things. From the moment he was born into the world——bright eyes and fair skin——his parents had been proud of him and believed in everything that he would eventually work towards; supported every dream he had. In school, he was that student who was always expected to walk hand-in-hand with _big things_ ; the one who had a promising future, and it was only reasonable for a bright child to hope that he wouldn’t let anyone down. He made plans and he had a thousand different goals——and he made those goals happen.

Being accepted to work with the _Agency of Standards Technology and Reporting of Securities and Human Intelligence Policing_ , better known as STARSHIP (due to the ridiculous mouthful of a name for an establishment), was a dream come true for him.

He wasn't talented; he just worked extremely hard for everything he believed in and never knew when to give up. As a child, he remembered his parents laughing and telling him to leave silly things as they were, but the boy couldn't look his classmates in the eye if he ignored the justice on the playground.

He was confident in himself to say the least——he knew the worth of his skills and everything that he was capable of; his looks were better than average, if he were to be honest with himself, as well. Promising, as a person, was probably a good enough description of Shin Hoseok.

The blond officer is good at what he does and he knows what he's doing, more than a good ninety-percent of the time. He worked hard at the things he loved and he's come extremely far from the child who dreamed of working for the government and protecting the nation. He was patient and he had an impeccable work ethic——a favourite, when he was working as a Special Agent under the United Kingdom branch of STARSHIP. The transfer to the United States branch was merely for working with Chae Hyungwon on a case that they'd been unable to crack for years.

Unlike Hyungwon, neither of his parents had worked in law enforcement and they had been quizzical when he’d initially brought up the idea. He didn’t have someone to hold his hand and show him the ropes; he and Hyungwon were drastically different from one another simply in the way they were raised. Still, his parents supported everything he ever dreamed of.

Their similarities, however, lie in the fact that they’d worked alone since the start of their careers.

Hoseok was an independent agent registered under STARSHIP and when he'd first met Hyungwon, he'd been devastated to learn that he would be working with a complete stranger, despite knowing that they were both passionate in law and the enforcement of what they believed in. Regardless of it all, Shin Hoseok worked best when he was alone because he played by his own rules and collaboration was difficult. Hoseok was flexible, though——he learned to work with Hyungwon, simply because he reminded him of his little sister back in London.

Shin Hoseok is a lot of things and he adapted to a lot of things expected of him——it was almost in his job description to have such a factor in his personality. Initially, the transfer of branches had thrown his mind for a spin, being so used to the environment in London——Los Angeles was leagues different from London, but he forced himself to adapt.

Generally, everything he was unfamiliar eventually eased to him: a club-goer is definitely not one of the things that he was, but he didn’t think this was something that he would ever get used to. Not that he ever really wanted to feel comfortable in such an environment.

He felt awkward when the bright lights flashed down on him. The music was too loud in his ears, and as an assistant to enforcing the law, he felt terribly out of place in a room where everyone seemed to be bordering on breaking every law he wanted to enforce. His comfort was in the fact that his partner sat by his side and the mental reminder that they're in here for the purpose of work——although, anyone who looked in their direction with curious eyes was completely oblivious of such facts. It only made him feel a little more awkward.

He needed to ignore such things, though. He was in the nightclub for a purpose, and they weren’t going to leave until they were finally able to grapple a couple clues——their leads were limited, but Hyungwon was texting someone on a burner phone and Hoseok prayed that it would be someone who could get them away from the club.

So, they sat in the darker corners of the club, in a booth where they could survey the entire crowd of dancing bodies——Hyungwon nursed a cocktail in his hands, a slight flush on his cheeks from the alcohol intake, despite not having much to drink at all.

“Do you see them?” Hyungwon kept his voice low, though nothing could really be heard over the blasting music in the club.

“They shouldn’t be too hard to spot,” Hoseok answered, “But, no. I don’t see them, yet.”

The brunet pursed his lips and carefully surveyed their surroundings before turning his phone screen to show Hoseok the text he’d just received. The number was unlisted, but each message was signed with _#L02601_ and it was enough for him to deduce the sender. “He says they just left, so we got here a little too early.”

“Unfortunate,” Hoseok said, “You’ve already had plenty to drink and they’re not even here, yet. Am I going to be on my own throughout this mission or something? Or are you going to magically sober up?”

Hyungwon rolled his eyes, “We had an agreement that you were probably more likely to be someone who could sway even a straight person, so you’re the one doing all the information wheedling.”

"That was a conversation we had at the office when I was _drunk_!”

"I agree with you, now that I'm drunk, though," Hyungwon offered. Hoseok groaned and buried his face in his hands.

Over the course of the conversation, they attract some eyes and the brunet cleared his throat, turning to look at the blond, “Hoseok? Speaking in Korean probably isn’t the best of ideas, here. We’re not trying to attract that much attention, if any at all.”

Eyes stealthily scanning the room in his peripheral, the blond nodded and easily switched their means of communication “Reasonable.”

He regretted it almost immediately, when Hyungwon’s lips pulled into a smirk. He would never understand why the brunet found his accent hilarious, but he couldn’t help the way his syllables lilted as he spoke——that was something he never completely adapted to: ridding his English accent, once he set foot into the United States. 

“If it didn’t constitute as battery to whack you across the head, Chae Hyungwon, I would,” Hoseok narrowed his eyes, “I don’t want to hear a boy who can’t properly pronounce _pineapple_ to laugh at my accent.”

Hyungwon baulked at the accusation, but as soon as he attempted to argue it, Hoseok's eyes directed themselves to the entrance of the nightclub with curious eyes narrowing a little. Hyungwon turned to follow his gaze; "Where are we looking?"

“Entrance. Isn’t that... one of them?” he blanks on the name for a split second and looked to Hyungwon for clarification.

Clearly enough, at the entrance of the club, a petite man entered the establishment adorned in designer clothing, tucking his sunglasses into the pocket of his sunglasses and headed directly to the bar. The agents looked to one another, “Looks like him to me,” Hyungwon remarked, “He looks better than in his profile shots and passport photos, though.” A pause. “So, you’re going to go after that, right?”

Hoseok fixed the younger man with a glare, before grabbing the cocktail which Hyungwon nursed and downed the remaining contents, letting the alcohol burn down his throat, despite the younger man’s indignant complaints.

Taking a deep breath, the blond officer stood up from his seat at the booth and turned to make a beeline towards the man across the room.

Crossing the room and cutting through the dance floor, Hoseok kept his eyes on his target and self-consciously ran his fingers through his hair, in hopes of making himself presentable. For someone who was confident in his looks, it’s still a little strange to use them to his advantage in the middle of a mission, though. Or at least, he thought so.

Hyungwon clearly didn’t think so.

It felt entirely too long to cross the room to the other side, trying to slip between grinding, sweaty bodies and make it to the bar. He absently wondered if it would be too suspicious to immediately approach someone when they walked into the club. Quickly, he reasoned that he was standing in a club and surely, there wasn’t anything entirely too strange according to the standards of such establishments.

Approaching the bar, Hoseok leaned against the counter and flashed an awkward smile at the bartender, before ordering himself a drink. He needed to calm his nerves a little more——approaching strangers when it wasn’t the scene of an arrest was something he still needed to work on.

When the bartender handed him his drink, Hoseok took a sip of it and exhaled before turning to his left, where the targeted man sat.

_Eye contact._

Suddenly, it was a little harder to breathe. The mischievous eyes regarding him over the rim of his glass had a significant glow to them; his mind immediately deemed it as _attractive_ , and he has to mentally hit himself on the head because he wasn’t supposed to suddenly be attracted to the person he was trying to wheedle information out of.

The smaller man had gentle features, contrasting his strikingly dark eyes swathed with a smoky blend of eyeliner (or perhaps, eye-shadow?); a smooth jawline, along with fair glowing complexion which seemed to be complemented by the light brown locks atop his head——pushed back and gelled. His lips looked soft; holding a slight pout and a pretty pink colour.

Flirtatious eyes narrow at him and the light brown haired man's lips curl into a small smile before he turned away. Hoseok assumed that was the nightclub body language for _talk to me, because I’m not going to talk to you first, but I think you’re pretty cute_. He downed the rest of his drink, as a precaution to the concern of screwing up Hyungwon’s plan (because the last thing he needed was for his partner to be angry at him, again).

“You come here often?” Hoseok asked, sliding over to the stool next to the other man. Internally, he cringed at the way the words left his lips, but he supposed that every conversation has to start somewhere. _Bad pickup lines or not_.

“Do you throw bad pickup lines around often?” came the reply and the blond fought every urge to blush in embarrassment.

“I’m a little new to this entire _talk to the cute guy in the club_ thing,” he sighed, “My name is Wonho. Do you mind if we try again?”

“Kihyun,” the smaller man offered with a smile. “You’re kind of cute.”

A bashful smile, “Thank you.”

 

 ** _(_**                +              **_)_**

****

They talk the night away over a couple glasses of hard liquor and when Hoseok glanced over to where Hyungwon had been sitting earlier, he finds himself abandoned. It isn’t the worst of situations considering the fact that he could find his way back to their hotel, but it isn’t exactly ideal, either.

Time flew whilst he spoke to the thief and he doesn't find out much, but if his reputation was a thief, then Hoseok could assure that he was good at his job. He swiped the blond's attention in a matter of seconds and kept him captivated for hours.

It’s nothing short of amazing.

They go from talking about how they’d been abandoned at the nightclub by their friends (“He said he’d come with me, but at the last minute, he left me alone,” Kihyun complained about Minhyuk, and it confirmed to Hoseok that he had the right person; Hoseok had laughed and told him that he’d come with a friend, but suddenly Hyungwon was nowhere in sight), to talking about themselves (but nothing too specific, because they’re a little intoxicated and Hoseok was still an undercover officer——keeping that a secret was the point of the entire title).

The more he learned about the younger man had him wondering what drove a person like Yoo Kihyun to fall into the criminal life, when he looked so bright, with a promising future based on everything he heard. He supposed that the light brown haired man could have easily been lying to him, but he'd introduced himself with his real name when Hoseok hadn't been expecting such.

But, the downsides of Shin Hoseok being an enforcer of the law was simply this: he was too understanding and kind for a job which demanded strenuous emotional closure. He couldn’t pull himself to be so closed off——easily sympathized with people whom he likely shouldn’t.

And he supposed that having Chae Hyungwon as his partner was something which balanced that out perfectly. Because even there, where Hoseok lacked, Hyungwon had it; vice versa.

He isn’t quite sure what he’s doing anymore——the music is getting to his head and so is the alcohol, but Kihyun has his stool pulled a little closer to Hoseok’s now, and he’s smiling coquettishly at him from under dark lashes. Hoseok’s breath catches in the back of his throat.

“So, how do you feel about casual hookups?” Kihyun asked, eyes shining under the blazing lights of the nightclub. His voice is quiet, but Hoseok hears him loudly over the sound of the music.

Hoseok is certain that this wasn’t what Hyungwon was thinking when he proposed that Hoseok seduce information out of Kihyun, and he’s probably not supposed to sleep with the criminal, but _whatever works_. His judgement is a little off, but he’s certain of the fact that he wants to press his lips against Kihyun’s (and he prays it’s just alcoholic infatuation).

“I can do those,” he breathed, and then Kihyun’s suddenly leaning over and pressing his soft lips against Hoseok’s.

He tastes like alcohol and smells of a soft musk.

Hoseok wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him closer.

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

****

Morning comes as an offensive bright light streaming through the windows of _God-knows-where_ because the pair found themselves sleepily wrapped up in one another's arms (having checked out a hotel room, sometime last night——Kihyun hopes they charged Hoseok's credit card). 

It isn’t normal for Kihyun to wake up in the arms of last night’s hookups, because even Minhyuk left him on the mornings after, so it came to him as a shock——dark eyes widening in both surprise and horror.

Rolling himself out of the blond’s arms, Kihyun held his breath and pulled the sheets over himself, though his body felt a strange urge to really just roll back into the practical stranger’s arms and seek the warmth from his body. But, he quickly reminded himself that he’s not supposed to fall into _affectionate mornings_ after dirty nights.

The blond lying beside him, even whilst asleep, was obviously attractive and he had to give himself props for his drunken taste (though a majority of the night was lost, he remembered the sex. The _good_ sex; he’s sure that it’s been a long time since he’d fallen into bed with someone who could suck dick _that_ well).

Without his notice, the blond’s eyes fluttered open; he was amidst a mental debate of whether or not it would be appropriate to lay back down into the other man’s arms. And when he does notice, the blond’s lips were curled into a smirk. Kihyun hardly knew him, yet he wanted to punch him in the face for having such an expression.

“Come here, you know you want to,” Hoseok replied, strong arms reaching out to catch Kihyun’s wrist and pull him towards himself. The light brown haired man narrowed his eyes and huffed, rolling back into the blond’s arms.

“Listen, I have to be somewhere in an hour and a half...”

The platinum haired man grinned, burying his face into Kihyun’s hair, “No worries, I have to be somewhere soon, too.”

“Maximum fifteen minutes of cuddling,” Kihyun mumbled and Hoseok chuckled.

“Fair,” he answered, “And before you go, can I get your number?”

“The sex was that good, huh?” Kihyun arched an eyebrow; the blond laughed.

“Oh, but if I tell you the truth, you won’t give me your number, will you?”

“You’re _not_ getting my number.”

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

****

Minhyuk impatiently tapped his fingers against the table, leaning against Changkyun's body with his eyes shut, arm slung over the younger man's shoulders and absently tracing the marks he'd left the previous night through the fabric of his shirt. Changkyun swatted absently at his hand and Minhyuk arched an eyebrow at him as if daring him to say something. The younger man narrowed his eyes and stayed silent.

“Where’s Kihyun?” Changkyun asked, after a moment of silence.

They’re sitting in a breakfast bar as promised to Changkyun the previous night. Minhyuk and Kihyun had both promised that they would meet up with the younger man’s friends, but fifteen minutes past the meeting time, Kihyun was nowhere in sight. And Changkyun’s friends were also absent.

“He went to the club, last night,” Minhyuk answered, “I stayed with you, so I wouldn’t know where he is, now.”

“You could text him,” Changkyun replied, arching an eyebrow. Minhyuk clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and chuckled.

“Was last night not convincing enough to make you want to stay alone with me?” Minhyuk teased, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket and scrolling through the device to find his partner’s phone number. Changkyun rolled his eyes, contrary to the blush which coloured his cheeks at the mention of his night with the older man, and ran his fingers through Minhyuk’s dark hair.

“That’s not it...”

“I’m just kidding, Changkyun,” Minhyuk laughed, catching onto the younger man’s sudden hesitation, quickly shooting his partner a text. He needed to remember that not every single person in the world spoke of sex as casually as he and Kihyun did.

And the devil appears when one speaks of him; Kihyun rushed through the doors of the establishment as soon as Minhyuk sent the message. With a satisfied smile, Minhyuk sat up and shot Changkyun a look, as if he knew how Kihyun’s entrance would have played out. The light brown haired man eyed them suspiciously as he took a seat across from them.

“You two seem close,” he remarked, arching an eyebrow. Minhyuk smiled serenely and Kihyun fixed him with an unimpressed look, when the reality of everything dawned on him (though, he should have expected it more than anything else), “I can’t believe you. He’s literally a baby, Minhyuk.”

The black haired man rested his chin in his palm and leaned against the table, “He’s twenty-four. Well above the age of consent. I wasn’t the one who suggested it, you know. And you left me all alone, what was I supposed to do?”

Changkyun made to object, flustered, but at that moment, a tall brunet headed in the direction of their table looking a thousand times more unimpressed than Kihyun had when he’d deduced the facts of the previous night involving both his partner and friend. Changkyun immediately straightened up in his seat and his expression brightened upon the arrival of the newcomer.

“Morning,” he greeted, sliding into the seat next to Changkyun. Before any questions could be asked of him, Hyungwon added to his remark, “Hoseok will be here in a bit.”

"I thought he was the more responsible one," Changkyun mused, shifting a little away from Minhyuk. The thief narrowed his eyes but sat up regardless of seemingly wanting to complain.

Hyungwon scoffed, “Are you joking?”

With a smile, Changkyun turned to look at Kihyun and Minhyuk; “This is Hyungwon. He’s one of the guys that I wanted you two to meet.” Gesturing to his friends, Changkyun introduced them to the brunet, “Kihyun. Minhyuk.”

Hyungwon nodded at them, offering his hand for a shake and Kihyun arched an eyebrow, “This feels like a business meeting, not a meeting between people who should be friends.”

“Shut up, Kihyun,” Minhyuk chided, “You only have me as a friend. You don’t know how to make friends.”

Looking offended, Kihyun reached over the table to smack Minhyuk’s head, “I have Changkyun, too. I didn’t shake his hand on a first meeting.”

When Changkyun’s lips pulled into an amused smile, Hyungwon quietly retracted his hand and cleared his throat, but Minhyuk reached forward and caught his hand between his fingers, “Ignore Kihyun,” he said, “He’s irrelevant. _I’ll_ shake your hand.”

The black haired man gripped the taller man's hand a little too long when they shake hands, and Kihyun just _knows_ that Minhyuk had underlying motives to being so nice. He always did. Their hands are still linked and Hyungwon looked stern and a little uncomfortable with the prolonged contact, when a blond man walked to their table and slid into the open seat next to Kihyun, groaning.

“Sorry, I’m late.” he apologized, the voice sounding too familiar to Kihyun. The light haired man turned to look and his jaw dropped, without the notice of everyone sitting with him.

“It’s okay, Hoseok. We were all late,” Changkyun replied.

There was a brief moment of silence and they sat there, scanning one another’s visages. Kihyun’s eyes remained glued to the blond’s side profile and when he finally turned to make eye contact with him, the thief sputtered before speaking.

“Your name is _Hoseok_?” Kihyun blurted, brows furrowing a little bit.

The blond officer froze, as if finally realizing something, and he managed an awkward smile. It belated arose to his mind that he’d given Kihyun a fake name the previous night, when they’d run into one another at the club. He supposed that he should have offered his real name, knowing that they had plans for Changkyun to introduce them to one another in the morning. 

Of course, he hadn’t anticipated that he would have spent the entire night with the younger man; compromising situations where his name was repeated, over and over. He’d also been hoping that Kihyun wouldn’t remember, but unfortunately, he did.

Hoseok cursed mentally, keeping the smile on his lips.

“Yes, it is,” he confirmed, words sounding much more like a question than they did a statement.

“You know each other?” Changkyun asked, surprised.

“Met last night,” Kihyun supplied and Minhyuk shot the brunet a look, which he brushed off with a roll of his eyes.

Breakfast goes a little awkwardly, but it was more than expected because Minhyuk and Kihyun were used to being around one another and ignoring the presence of everyone else in the world. That was simply how they worked.

Hoseok and Hyungwon tried their best with communication, but aside from the enthusiasm upon the first five minutes of meeting one another; Minhyuk couldn’t offer very much more for the officers. Kihyun, on the other hand, couldn’t bring himself to meet the blond’s eyes despite sitting right behind him.

Quietly, Changkyun stabbed into his pancake and tried to start a conversation, “You know,” he said. Four sets of eyes turned to look at him curiously, praying that the same person who managed to get them into this situation would be able to ease their nerves all the same. “I met Hyungwon and Hoseok at a crime scene, too.”

That seemed to do the trick to get the thieves to speak. Minhyuk’s eyes brightened and Kihyun looked up from his plate of scrambled eggs with interest.

Going along with the role, Hyungwon frowned at the younger man, “You’re not supposed to just say that to just anyone.”

“That’s not something you share,” Hoseok added. Changkyun chuckled.

“But, I said _too_ ,” he said, “That’s a mutual thing between you guys.”

And with the prompt, the thieves seem to relax a little. They discuss crime scenes, quietly, with echoing laughter throughout the small establishment every few moments, when one of them tells an unbelievable story. Minhyuk seemed to be intent on sharing all of Kihyun's brilliance with their new acquaintances——trusting Changkyun with his judgement because the younger man had a reputation to live up to with the thieves.

They’re amusing stories that have no links to anything, just for the sake of being careful with the discussions of their past and plans in public spaces. Even if they were able to disclose the stories to Changkyun’s friends, they couldn’t risk having an officer overhearing them; they spoke English, and their surroundings undoubtedly understood the language.

“——and then he actually threw a wrench at the cop and ran,” Minhyuk laughed, “A _wrench_. And, I’ve seriously never seen him run so fast in my life!”

Kihyun grumbled into his orange juice, glaring at Minhyuk over the top of his glass, “That was all I _had_.”

Hyungwon's laughter sounded throughout the room, the corners of his eyes crinkling in genuine amusement at the story——it was funny to hear it happen to another officer. Hoseok warily watched his partner. It was better to act amused in response to the stories to fit into the role with the people whom they were investigating; Hoseok needed the time to adjust.

He made eye contact with Changkyun when no one else was looking and the younger man kept steady eyes on him. Tearing their eyes away from one another before anyone caught on, Changkyun checked his watch and pursed his lips.

“Hey, guys. I have somewhere to be,” he declared, “I put the meal on my tab, so they’ll charge my card. You guys can stay here for a while and keep talking. Just please keep the ordering to a minimum, I’m starting to go broke after treating both Kihyun and Minhyuk, last night.”

Kicking Changkyun under the table, Minhyuk shot him a dirty look and Kihyun frowned at him as if he'd betrayed their trust in exposing them and their eating habits. Looking quickly to Kihyun, Minhyuk cleared his throat and shrugged, after a short moment of silent eye contact.

“Kihyun and I have somewhere to be, too,” Minhyuk declared. “So, we’ll be taking our leave, now.”

“Can I get your numbers?” Hyungwon interjected, quickly. He hesitated before adding his reasoning, “I mean, I enjoyed talking to you guys. I’d like to hang out again, sometime.”

Hoseok silently thanked the Heavens for his partner’s quicker thinking——they would be able to keep a closer track on their targets, if they agreed to give them their phone numbers (especially since he’d failed in getting Kihyun’s number in the morning, but Hyungwon didn’t need to know of that occurrence).

Holding out his iPhone, the brunet officer flashed a small smile, “May I?”

Minhyuk and Kihyun exchanged wary looks before Minhyuk sighed and reached to take the device from Hyungwon's hands and punching his number into the device. Hyungwon took the device back with an arched eyebrow.

“This isn’t a fake number, is it?” he asked.

“Call it,” Minhyuk challenged, haughtily tilting his head.

The officer bites the bait and taps on the green icon on his screen. Minhyuk laughed when his phone began buzzing in his pocket and he held it out, proving to the officer that it was indeed his number. He saves the number in his own phone and Hoseok looked over Hyungwon’s shoulder to look at the brunet’s number, before copying it down into his own device.

Kihyun sat silently, watching the exchange and sipping on his orange juice——no intention of exchanging numbers with anyone. The only contacts he had in his phone were Minhyuk’s number (which he memorized by heart, though they never communicated through the phone), and the number of his dealer in Seoul (who likely has disposed of his burner phone, at this point).

So, when Hoseok turned to look at him, Kihyun scoffed.

“I’m not giving you my number,” Kihyun emphasized.

Instead of looking shocked at the sudden remark, the blond chuckled and winked at him playfully. "I'll just put my number on your phone, and you can text me whenever."

“I don’t want it,” Kihyun added.

With a laugh, Hoseok rested his elbow on the table and hummed, lowering his voice so that he’d be inaudible to the three other men at the table, “You sure? Not even for a repeat of last night?”

Refusing to blush, the light haired man stubbornly shoved his hand into his pocket and held his phone out to the blond. Hoseok grinned victoriously and Kihyun looked away from him, gritting his teeth in feigned annoyance. When the phone is returned to his hands, Hoseok flashed him another wink and Kihyun balled his hand into a fist in his sweatpants’ pockets, resisting the urge to punch Hoseok in the face——alike to what he’d do to Minhyuk, if the dark haired man ever attempted such actions.

And before they leave the breakfast bar with two strangers’ numbers in their phones, Changkyun pulled the thieves to the side and offered them both gentle, reassuring smiles.

“I know you guys don’t like trusting new people, but I promise _they’re good at what they do._ ”

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

****

Surely enough, they do get closer——to the preference of the two officers. Several days after they meet in the breakfast bar with Changkyun, Hyungwon texts Minhyuk and asks him if he's still in Las Vegas. They are, so they manage to organize a quick meet-up because the thieves have nothing better to kill time with. Kihyun still needed to monitor the location of their next mission in order to plan the perfect execution, so they don't have anything related to their career to do.

They go out for a few drinks at the bar and they sit lined up in front of the bartender——Minhyuk seated beside Hyungwon, Kihyun to Minhyuk’s left and Hoseok beside him——taking shots to commemorate a friendship that a drunken Minhyuk had insisted developed over the fact that they were taking shots together. Kihyun, less inebriated, could beg to differ the way Minhyuk’s mind worked.

Despite meeting Minhyuk and almost immediately trusting him, Kihyun had his valid reasons for laying down everything he believed in for the older man. When he had nothing left and nothing to hold hopes in, Minhyuk swept into his life like an angel, offering him a much-needed change. He had nothing to lose, back then. And he had a whole life of luxury to lose, if he made the wrong move, now.

There were a thousand detriments that came with a single perk——he'd always believed that someone who couldn't experience such a lifestyle would never understand what that meant. If he made the wrong move, just once, he could be facing a lifetime in jail——a permanent record that would ensure that he'd return to the dark days and lonely nights he'd dreaded as a teenager, who couldn't control anything in his life and watched as everything slipped from between his fingertips.

But, with a couple shots of hard liquor in his system, he pushed away the thoughts which dwell heavily in the back of his mind and tried his best to focus on everything before him——the flashing lights, the bright smiles, _his friends_.

He supposed that, after six years of having no one but Minhyuk by his side, it was hard to accept other people into his life. He’d clearly learned the ways which he and Minhyuk worked——the things that were off limits to one another; the things which angered one another; the things that never failed to calm each other down and bring them back to a place where their minds were safe. They knew how to handle one another, because Kihyun believed that a friendship——a partnership; whatever their relationship may classify as——of this length was a _miracle_ , based on the sheer impulse which had catapulted them both into this life.

It would take him time to get used to both Hyungwon and Hoseok in their lives. Minhyuk seemed to take it too easily in stride, but he supposed that was why he found interest in the older man in the first place. Minhyuk was open and more likeable than he was, undoubtedly——unabashed and thrilling to be around. Kihyun found himself bland in comparison to his partner, but he supposed that he had his own perks and Minhyuk excelled in everything he lacked.

That was why they worked so well together.

Fingers pressed to his temples, Kihyun exhaled softly before Hoseok pushed a shot glass in front of him and offered a small smile, “You look really deep in thought.”

“I am,” he replied, managing to chuckle. He brought one of his hands away from his head and pressed gentle fingers to the sides of the shot glass, “What is it?”

“Tequila,” Hoseok answered, “A penny for your thoughts?”

“My thoughts are worth more than that,” Kihyun quipped. The blond laughed and it seemed to flow with the soft music playing in the background (and Kihyun hopes that the comparison is just his drunken poet speaking and nothing more).

“A dime?” Hoseok offered, playfully.

Kihyun rolled his eyes and rested his cheek in his palm, turning in his stool to face the other man, narrowing his eyes a little——considering, “I suppose that’s good enough.”

“Talk to me,” he said, reaching over to place a gentle hand on Kihyun’s thigh and smiling lightly. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he hated the way Hoseok treated him——so gentle and kind, as if he actually deserved such treatment.

He supposed that was how Minhyuk had felt about him, when he openly accepted every little thing that the brunet did without a question in the period of a couple months after they met. It was a good feeling, when you’ve lived a majority of your life with scrutinizing eyes telling you that you were a criminal; a disappointment to society.

“I don’t think you want to hear what I want to say,” Kihyun answered, eyes briefly moving to where Hoseok rested his hand against his thigh and he pursed his lips. “My mind isn’t an interesting place that everyone wants to be.”

“I promise I’ll listen well,” Hoseok told him, eyes twinkling with a light glow. Kihyun doesn’t know why, but it drew him towards the other man (perhaps emotionally, for a part of him felt his mind melting into a blurry trusting state and promising himself that the night would pass peacefully).

A soft sigh left his lips, “I don’t trust you.”

Surprise crossed the blond’s face and he made to reason with Kihyun, before the younger man continued to speak, “I’m not saying I don’t trust that you won’t listen well,” he clarified. “I don’t trust you, nor do I trust Hyungwon. _I trust Changkyun_ , but I can’t trust the two of you, even though you’re his friends. You two came out of nowhere and you’re so kind to us, even knowing the kind of people we are. You know who we work for and you know the kind of lives we lead; you guys are _different_ , even though Changkyun might have met you two in similar situations to how he met us. Minhyuk seems to have accepted you guys quite easily and in the many years I’ve known him, I can promise you that this is the first time I’ve seen this happen with someone other than myself.

“Perhaps, that’s a sign that, maybe, I should trust you guys too. But, I find myself extremely wary of you two, and I don’t really know why. Don’t be offended by the way I think; you’re the one who asked to listen,” Kihyun continued, “And I’m going to stay wary of you two until you can prove that you’re trustworthy, because I can’t risk losing everything I’ve worked towards in the past six years of my life. Minhyuk brought me a gift of liberty and luxury, a _blessing_ , and I’m _not_ going to risk losing that.

“So, be sweet to him all you want, but I’ll take work. And a lot of it, too. There’s that, upright,” he quietly scanned Hoseok’s figure and unreadable expression, “If you’re even mildly offended at the way I voiced the opinion you asked to hear, then please get your hands off of me.”

Hoseok studied him carefully, silently, “I think that’s fair.”

“What?”

“I think that’s fair,” Hoseok replied. “We’re strangers to the two of you. You know almost nothing about us and Changkyun asked you to trust us. Where’s the logic in that?”

It might just be the alcohol reasoning with Kihyun, but Hoseok knew that he needed to word everything carefully before he accidentally blew their cover (because if he did, it would cost him more than an hour of his time with Chae Hyungwon lecturing him about how disappointed he was. Something like that could cost him his entire career——alike to Kihyun, he couldn't risk losing everything he worked for in the past years).

(He’s always been good at cleaning up the messes he caught himself into, but there was hardly a reassurance that this would be something that was recoverable.)

“It’s perfectly understandable that you don’t trust us,” Hoseok added, eyes raising to meet with Kihyun’s——shining with too much kindness. “If I were you, I wouldn’t trust me either.”

Wary eyes studied the blond’s visage and Kihyun turned away from him, downing the forgotten shot of tequila, “Why wouldn’t you trust yourself if you were me?”

Hoseok’s lips curled into a mischievous smile, “Someone _this_ handsome can’t be trustworthy.”

“I’m going to punch you,” Kihyun said, “Let me punch you in that pretty face of yours.”

Eyes crinkling at the corners, Hoseok laughed and removed his hand front Kihyun’s thigh, “I’ll pass on that. Maybe next time.”

Turning away from the blond, Kihyun couldn’t help but bite back the threat of a smile. Hoseok seemed to notice and he turned back to face the bartender with a small, satisfied smile gracing his lips.

 _It would get easier. For the both of them_.

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

Sprawled out on the bed of the hotel room he shared with Kihyun, Minhyuk rested his cheek against the excessive stack of pillows and watched as Kihyun tapped away at random buttons on his laptop. This was the part of the job he disliked——it was a part they needed, but watching Kihyun do his research was boring. Minhyuk was borderline useless in this aspect of the job; they’d tried letting him plan out a couple things before and the only thing he’d succeeded in was to further proved that Kihyun was the brains of the operations.

“Have I ever told you how much I hate this part?” Minhyuk asked, extending his legs and nearly pushing his partner off the bed. Kihyun caught himself on the edge of the bed, though his hands prioritized themselves in catching his precious laptop.

"You tell me every single time," Kihyun responded as if he hadn't just nearly been pushed off of the king-sized bed (the amount of room Minhyuk took up on an enormous bed was ridiculous, but expected from someone who laid in the position of an ignorant starfish). "Stop taking up so much space, we're both fully grown men who need the room."

Minhyuk stuck his tongue out childishly (and it makes Kihyun wonder how Minhyuk was the older one, even by a mere nineteen days), “You’re a very small full grown man.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Kihyun grumbled in response to the jab at his height.

Pulling his laptop onto his chest and leaning back onto Minhyuk's back and using it as a pillow, the light-haired man's eyes remained on the screen as he tapped at the screen and pressed a few buttons. With the change of position, Minhyuk lost vision of the screen and gave up in attempting——he hardly understood what anything meant until Kihyun built the extravagant flowcharts which explained their every movement, anyway.

After a moment of silence and tapping of buttons, Kihyun pursed his lips and pondered a topic of conversation——simply because he was in the mood to speak.

“You seem to have grown a liking for Hyungwon,” Kihyun remarked, absently as his eyes scanned the search results populating his screen.

“He’s cute,” Minhyuk answered, humming lightly.

“I can see that you think so,” Kihyun cheekily told him. Minhyuk groaned quietly and moved so that Kihyun fell from his resting position on his back. Scrambling into a lazy sitting position, Minhyuk crossed his legs and stared down at his offended (and mildly injured) partner.

“You know, I’m only mildly upset that you’re suddenly having sex with someone else,” Minhyuk sighed, eyeing Kihyun mischievously.

“Stop saying shit like that,” the light brown haired man groaned, “It was a one-time thing. It’s not like I’m leaving you every single night to go get laid. All we did was fool around for a night.”

Nudging his partner with his foot, Kihyun flashed a small grin, “Don’t be jealous.”

“I’m kind of jealous,” Minhyuk admitted. “Hyungwon doesn’t want to screw me, sadly.”

“ _That_ is not what I meant and you know that. _This_ is something I don’t want to hear about. But, you have _such_ a thing for younger men, don’t you?” Kihyun arched his brow and Minhyuk’s grin dropped.

“ _No, I don’t!_ What are you talking about? Hyungwon is the first younger man that I’ve tried to get into the pants of!” Minhyuk exclaimed.

Kihyun chuckled, “Are we going to completely forget about Changkyun? And are we going to completely forget the few months that you were totally into me?”

The black haired thief smacked Kihyun’s head and groaned, “We don’t talk about that, you shit. And the thing with Changkyun was just because he suggested it.”

“And you accepted,” Kihyun hummed, _“Because you’re into younger men.”_

“Don’t kink-shame me.”

“Oh, so you _are_.”

“Shut the fuck up. Did you get any search results that might be useful?”

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

Hyungwon leaned against the balcony of his own hotel room and inhaled the cool air, letting it fill up his lungs and send a soothing shock of frigidity throughout his body. The clock recently struck two o’clock in the morning: he hadn’t checked the clock since and he doesn’t know how long he’d been standing out on the balcony, but it felt nice to be awake and thinking.

A comfort existed in the silence; the atmosphere was kind to him. It lacked disturbance and the only thing which kept him restless was his own mind. To the brunet officer, it was ideal. Arms rested against the metal railing of the balcony, he shut his eyes and off his mind, trying to gather his thoughts and hopefully plan out the next move in their little game with the thieves.

Simply because success in a mission of this caliber meant significant recognition for the both of them in STARSHIP——every single special agent worked towards that recognition. Both Hyungwon and Hoseok were so close to finally achieving that and they couldn’t let it slip out of their hands, now.

Every step needed to be planned with utmost caution.

And that meant he needed to rely on his mind over his heart——within their pair, throughout the entire unit, Hoseok was known to be the one with the softer heart, but Hyungwon often pitied the criminals whom he detained. He simply didn't let it show as much as the blond did——there was no point in taking pity on someone who was proven to have done something wrong.

A hardened heart and mind of an officer raised in a bloodline of law enforcers demanded that he live up to a legacy paved for him.

There was a shuffling sound from behind him and Hoseok’s head peeked out from the glass door, the blond rubbing his eyes and trying to shake away the sleep, “Why are you awake?” Hoseok asked, curiously. His voice was a sleepy drawl and it made the other cop sigh softly.

“Go back to sleep,” Hyungwon told him, “I’m just thinking a little bit.”

Hoseok stepped out into the cold air beside him, pulling the hotel’s robe tightly around his body, “You can talk to me, you know? We’re partners for a reason. We’ve done most of our work without talking, before, but I think that with something this big... we really need to work on our communication.”

Hyungwon paused, turning his eyes to Hoseok. The coherency of his words made Hyungwon think that Hoseok hadn't been asleep at all, but knowing the other officer for several years assured him that Hoseok had. The blond officer just happened to have a good sense for when his mind needed to be alert——typical traits of an officer.

"I'm just thinking... that we've progressed very little in finding out what we're searching for, even though we've gotten complete contact with the people we're looking for, many thanks to Agent Lim," Hyungwon exhaled, "But, on our own, we haven't done much at all."

“Hey,” Hoseok started, “You’re starting to sound like a rookie agent all over again. Do you remember taking your very first mission? Do you remember the stress of completing everything perfectly and on time? Do you remember being upset about not being to do everything as you thought it would be?”

Hyungwon eyed his partner, unsure of where Hoseok was taking the conversation. "I don't think I've ever told you this story; but, I remember mine. I was still in London, back then; just turned twenty-two. I remember coming home to my apartment and immediately telling my little sister that I finally was allowed a field job and that I had to come back with perfection because it was my first task and I needed to prove myself. She laughed at me, you know? She was _thirteen_ and she laughed at me for it,” Hoseok took a breath, “Because reality says that nothing works out the way you want it to. I didn’t make a name for myself as the best officer in the London branch of STARSHIP with my first mission. I probably knocked myself down a couple levels with that mission; as a result, becoming a disappointment.

"But, two years later, I was transferred to Los Angeles as their best," Hoseok continued, "Your first mission probably wasn't as disastrous as mine, but what I'm trying to say is that you're putting too much thought into this. I know that completing this mission will give us all the recognition in STARSHIP that we've dreamed of since day one... but, it's not realistic to dwell on every little detail. Loosen up, Officer Chae. You’re good at what you do and you’re good at figuring things out along the way. I’ve worked with you long enough to realize that.

“We’ve been in Las Vegas for less than a week,” Hoseok added, “This is a mission that hasn’t been cracked in over three years. These two are better at what they do than we think they are. Everything will take time, and if you keep thinking like a rookie, you’ll lose everything you learned from the years of experience you’ve racked up.”

With a kind smile, Hoseok looked up at his partner and dug his hand into his robe, pulling out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter, offering it to the taller man, “Relax a little and head back to sleep, Hyungwon. Or would you rather a cigarette to clear your mind?”

Sighing, Hyungwon pulled the cigarette from between Hoseok’s fingers and held it out for the blond to light it, “I’ll head to bed after this burns out.”

“Don’t go to bed too late,” Hoseok reminded him gently, lighting the tip of the cigarette on fire and watching the orange flame burn in the darkness of the night.

Turning on his heel, Hoseok ran his fingers through his hair and tucked the lighter back into his pocket before opening the door to enter their hotel room again.

“Officer Shin?” Hyungwon called, quietly. Hoseok stopped and hummed in acknowledgement, turning his head slightly. “Thank you.”

A small smile graced the older man’s lips, “My pleasure, Officer Chae.”

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

The room was silent, but the rain knocked gently on the window; serene. Outside of the hotel room, the moonlight shone through the clouds cluttered across the sky. The door of the hotel room opened and Minhyuk walked into the room, making a beeline towards his partner in crime.

“I have an idea,” Minhyuk declared, throwing himself onto the bed next to Kihyun, who had just gotten out of the shower——hair still wet and matted to his forehead——and taken a seat on the bed, laptop in front of him. The light haired man arched an eyebrow with his eyes remaining on his laptop screen.

"Is it a stupid idea?" Kihyun asked, nonchalantly. Looking mildly offended, Minhyuk pouted and rested his chin on Kihyun's shoulder, wrapping his arms around the younger man's waist from behind. Kihyun relaxed into the touch but didn't move.

“When are my ideas ever stupid?”

Kihyun stopped typing with an amused smirk on his lips, “ _Always_ ,” he deadpanned.

Minhyuk pouted and buried his face into the younger man’s neck, childishly. Sighing and turning to look at his partner, Kihyun pushed his laptop away from himself and shook himself out of Minhyuk’s arms, readjusting their positions and curling against him; lips brushing briefly against the older man’s jawline. Minhyuk’s pout dropped almost immediately and it was replaced with a light smile at the action, absent fingers running through Kihyun’s hair affectionately.

“My ideas aren’t always stupid,” the dark haired man murmured, tilting his head slightly and letting Kihyun’s lips press to his jaw in a gentle kiss——it means nothing, but they’re used to sharing the affectionate actions with one another; perhaps, it was something which developed through the past six years of relying on one another.

Kihyun wasn’t usually so affectionate——wasn’t so clingy (that was Minhyuk’s job)——but, rainy nights in June reminded him of the night they met, and Kihyun found himself lavishing the older man with attention. It was how he seemed to rid himself of the reminder that he’d been a failure to himself, not too long ago. Kihyun never explicitly explained himself, but there were things that never needed to be explained between people who worked practically as one.

Minhyuk didn’t mind it; _not anymore_. Years ago, perhaps, he would have let his heart skip a beat and let himself fall into Yoo Kihyun, but now, he knew better.

They both knew better at this point of the relationship.

“Fine, hit me,” Kihyun said, softly with his arms wrapped around Minhyuk’s neck. The older man rested his hand on the small of Kihyun’s back, “What’s your brilliant idea?”

Pursing his lips, the black haired thief hummed softly, “Let’s ask Hyungwon and Hoseok to join us on our next heist.”

There was a moment of silence as Kihyun arched an eyebrow and pulled away from the older man, eyeing him strangely. His expression was unreadable as he studied the taller, quizzically. Minhyuk continued to stare at his partner, eyes serious but lips stretched into a smile.

“You’re fucking _insane_ ,” came the response from the younger man, an eyebrow arched in question, yet his tone was flat and void of any explicit emotions. Minhyuk tilted his head backwards, pursed his lips, studying the younger man’s expression.

It’s all Kihyun needed to see to know that Minhyuk meant what he said. And it’s also all Kihyun needed to see to know that the brunet was batshit crazy.

Silently, Kihyun shifted to straddle the older man, pushing Minhyuk down onto his back (the taller man moved smoothly with the gentle push and laid back) and he narrowed his eyes. “You can’t _actually_ be serious. This is a mission from the _Underground_. We can’t just pull random people into it.”

“C’mon, Changkyun said they were good at what they do. This is a big mission,” Minhyuk reasoned, “What if they’re going to really helpful to us? We could become a foursome!”

“Minhyuk, you know I trust you,” Kihyun sighed, frowning a little bit, “But, I don’t trust them. Not at all.”

Minhyuk’s moved to rest on Kihyun’s hips and he pursed his lips, “My intuition was good with you.”

“But, that was _me. I_ had nothing to lose, and we’ve been working together for six years,” Kihyun replied. Minhyuk fixed him with a look.

“You were a chance at first too, you know. I mean, really: I took a chance in asking you. I didn’t know that you had nothing to lose. I just saw a potential in you and then, six years later, we’re still working together and doing better than ever with whatever the hell we’re doing,” the dark haired man whispered, softly.

Kihyun groaned, “I _know_ you. I’ve known you for six entire years of my life; I know you like the back of my hand. Usually, when I say we’re _not_ going to do something because I think it's absolutely bullshit and unnecessary, you give up on asking about it. But, holy shit, you're _reasoning_ with me this time. _God dammit, Lee Minhyuk;_ you already asked them, didn’t you?”

With an innocent smile, Minhyuk nodded, confirming the light brown haired man's suspicions. If it was anything else and Kihyun weren't aware of how insistent Minhyuk was about this, then perhaps he would have demanded that the dark haired man revoke his offer to the other two and tell them that it was himself who refused to accept it.

That they were a pair who worked together, just the two of them. That or nothing. But, denying Minhyuk of someone that he really seemed to want? The older man always seemed to find a way to get everything he wanted, anyway. Kihyun knew that much about him: those were the basics of understanding Lee Minhyuk.

Kihyun smacked his chest, giving up and falling forward and forcing all of his weight into the impact against Minhyuk. The other man grunted upon impact and Kihyun mumbled in mock anger into his chest, “I’m not happy with you at all. But, this... if this all goes to shit, I’m blaming you and I’m also going to punch you in the face.”

“You always say that,” Minhyuk hummed, tugging the younger man up and smiling a little.

Despite the annoyed act (and the actual disbelief at his partner), Minhyuk knows that if it made him happy, then Kihyun would try his best to get used to the entire idea. He might not trust anyone else aside from Minhyuk but, following such, Minhyuk was all he had, and if it made the older man happy, then he couldn’t object it, forever.

He’d force himself to get used to it.

Eyes shining, Minhyuk’s fingers curled themselves into Kihyun’s hair, lips curling into a small grin, “Trust me a little more.”

“I trust you with everything I’ve got,” Kihyun sighed, “You just stress me out beyond belief.”

Laughing breathlessly, the brunet tugged Kihyun down, letting their lips meet in a steady kiss. Kihyun shut his eyes and pressed his palms into the mattress on either side of Minhyuk’s head and letting himself melt slowly into the kiss. He’d complain about Minhyuk’s impulsiveness another time, because there was no getting Lee Minhyuk to listen when he was trying to coax Kihyun into listening to him through kisses.

“I hate you, though,” Kihyun murmured, pulling away for a moment.

Minhyuk chuckled, before tugging Kihyun gently back down, brushing their lips together, “I know.”

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

Kihyun gets over the whole partnership thing by the time they leave Las Vegas——a couple more meetings with the officers had the brunet growing closer to them and finding himself a little more fond of them, if only for the sake of his own partner (he’d never openly admit that he was getting used to being around the newcomers).

Hoseok and Hyungwon aren’t bad people, he found. Perhaps, he might not have appreciated them at first, because he was close-minded and attached to the idea of keeping Minhyuk to himself——their possessive ties were deeper than friendship, but not quite romance. Slowly, he began to try and accept the idea that sharing his best friend wasn’t the worst of ideas.

Hyungwon was reserved and spoke significantly less than what he was used to from being around Minhyuk, but it was a nice change to meet someone who was like him. Someone of few words but a seemingly vast expanse bank of knowledge in his mind——things that he wouldn’t share unless it were absolutely necessary. Kihyun could relate to the mindset, as he himself was so far from being outspoken (that was Minhyuk’s department); that’s where he found his connections to the younger man.

Hoseok was the opposite——someone who seemed to talk a lot, but not quite in the same way as Minhyuk. Neither of them was anything very much like Minhyuk. Hoseok spoke a lot, but the things he said were more on the lines of sentimental and motivational——as opposed to Minhyuk's ranting of pure bullshit (as Kihyun affectionately thought of everything which came out of his partner's mouth).

Though, it seemed that the blond man found a subtle attraction to Kihyun——perhaps, it’s the fact that they’ve slept together before, but he was always flashing the younger man sweet smiles and absently initiating physical contact. Kihyun couldn’t tell if he really minded the touches. Regardless, he lets it happen and sometimes lets himself relax when Hoseok excitedly hugs him (though, the last time that happened was when they were all drunk and trying their luck at arcade games, like every responsible twenty-five/six year old should try doing once in their lives).

They fly out——first class, from Las Vegas to New York——together; the four of them, in mid-June.

On the plane, he actually gets torn apart from Minhyuk, because the dark haired man was, unfortunately, willing to give up his plane ticket and sit with Kihyun over a game of rock, paper, scissors. Some kind of partner Minhyuk was, but Kihyun tried his best not to grumble at the outcome when he and Hoseok both show fists against Hyungwon and Minhyuk's spread palms.

Exchanging their boarding passes and seats, Kihyun plopped into the window seat and immediately plugged his earphones into his music player, leaning back and shutting his eyes; Hoseok sits beside him with a frown.

Ahead of them, Minhyuk and Hyungwon argue about who gets the aisle seat (Kihyun thinks that Hyungwon wins, when he made an argument about his long legs being suffocated, if he were to take the window seat).

“Do you still hate me?” Hoseok frowned, jabbing his side.

Kihyun swatted at his hand and furrowed unsatisfied brows, refusing to answer the question. But, Hoseok is relentless and he doesn’t actually give up on poking at the younger man until he gets an answer (and that was also a trait which reminded Kihyun of Minhyuk). It’s when the prodding of the blond’s fingers actually start to hurt a little, from being continuously poked in the same spot, does Kihyun rip his earphones out of his ears and glare at the taller.

“I never said I hated you, but _god damn_ , I just _might_ if you don’t fuckin’ stop.”

Snickering, Hoseok flashed a grin and it dawns on the younger man that all Hoseok really wanted was to draw a reaction out of him. While he isn’t paying attention, the blond swiped his earphones away and flashed a toothy smile, “Talk to me, I get bored on planes.”

“You should go to sleep and I can pretend you don’t exist,” Kihyun retorted, eyeing Hoseok and trying to find a way to snatch his earphones back. Even Minhyuk knew not to take Kihyun’s earphones away from him.

“Will you kiss me goodnight?”

“Shin Hoseok, I will cut you,” Kihyun grumbled.

And perhaps, he isn’t as fond of Shin Hoseok as he thought he was, because before anything, the blond as terribly annoying (in all the endearing ways that Kihyun would never submit to admitting to. Ever. Shin Hoseok wasn’t cute).

“You wound me. It’s illegal to hurt me, that’s assault,” Hoseok sighed, leaning his head onto Kihyun’s shoulder. It’s normal enough at this point; the past three weeks of knowing one another was enough for Kihyun to get used to the affectionate touches. In this moment, though, it only ignites his temper a little more.

“Off, Hoseok,” Kihyun warned. “It’s not assault, it’s battery. I’m just hitting you.”

“You’re threatening the possession of a weapon. It’s implied because you said you’d _cut_ me. I doubt you could do that with just our hands, unless I'm highly underestimating you, Mr. Scissorhands," Hoseok hummed, "And I'm scared of you because the short ones have such short tempers. That's definitely assault."

“That constitutes for _nothing_. But, why would I care for anything illegal? Have you seen what we do?”

Hoseok’s eyes twinkled and he chuckled with amusement, “No. Not in person, I haven’t.” Kihyun narrowed his eyes at the remark and the blond’s eyes widened a little as if he’d said something wrong. But, before Kihyun could ask, Hoseok corrected himself, “I mean, like... you guys are pretty notorious? I think we all know about you and the things you do.”

“The things we do,” Kihyun repeated, letting the words fall from his lips, awkwardly. “I don’t like how that sounds. Who’s _we_?”

Hoseok clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth (nervously, if Kihyun had sharp enough of an eye to catch the detail), “Hyungwon and I. We’re fans.”

“Thieves don’t have _fans_ , you dipshit,” Kihyun made a face. The officer looked at him with amused eyes and he leaned closer to Kihyun’s face. “And if we did, they’re definitely not going to be other thieves. We have crazy standards and the others are too conceited to look up to anyone.”

“You can be the first.”

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Our job is to hide from the police and do shit that is morally questionable for the better of an underground community," Kihyun said. "Having a _fan club_ kind of ruins that entire concept.”

Unbeknownst to Kihyun, the officer made mental notes out of everything he said and kept his mind as a running compilation of everything Kihyun may accidentally disclose to him: whether out of trust or by sheer accident.

“Fan clubs are nice,” Hoseok teased, slinging an arm over Kihyun’s shoulder, absently drawing patterns on the sleeve of his shirt. “If I were a fan of you and Minhyuk, I’d pick you to be my favourite.”

Kihyun shot him a dirty look, but didn’t bother to push him away, “Why? I’m mean to you.”

“I know you do it out of love for me, baby,” Hoseok bat his lashes at the younger man, mockingly.

Appalled, Kihyun shrugged the older man off of himself and feigned a gagging action, “Do not _ever_ call me _baby_ ever again.”

“So, you do love me?”

“When the fuck did I say that?”

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

 

Kihyun’s head was rested on Hoseok’s shoulder as he slept; the younger man had fallen asleep roughly fifteen minutes ago, and Hoseok didn’t have the heart to push him off. And in the time he didn’t need to actively play a role, Hoseok found his thoughts wandering all over the place.

Barely a month ago, he stood on a balcony with Hyungwon and reassured him that this mission would be the sole thing that brought the both of them to recognition. Both the officers and the thieves seemed to be working to a similar goal, however for completely different sides of the law.

There was a rewarding title that came with being able to be the first to reach the finish line.

Now, Hoseok isn’t quite sure that they were going to able to do what he promised. Of course, he wouldn’t ever voice that aloud to Hyungwon——that was something which would rupture his pride and his image; to an officer, their reputation alone was as good as everything they ever had to offer. It isn’t that he thought they weren’t going to be able to complete their task——it was the attachment issues that were likely to be developed with hanging around the thieves for months.

A part of Hoseok’s mind always found the justification for the things people did——the caliber of damage was always a factor, but everything else were things which he insisted on getting to know. He wanted to learn more about people and find out the reasons they did the things they believed were justified. It was the reason that STARSHIP never put him in detainment specialization——Hoseok had a soft heart and he easily believed in and stood by others, when they provided him with reasonable stories and genuine reasons.

Those traits were desirable for an officer in moderation, but Hoseok found himself too easily swayed, despite being loyal to the law.

But, the differences between himself and Hyungwon were the sole things that he prayed would stop their mission from spiralling out of hand. The brunet's personality contrasted to Hoseok's so greatly and it meant that he could push the blond officer back into line if he ever lost his way.

They worked well as a pair for a reason——they balanced one another out, almost in the same way that Kihyun and Minhyuk balanced one another out.

Yet, another reason for their difficulties in wheedling information out of the pair was that it seemed Kihyun guarded all the information which was important and relevant to everything they did. Minhyuk knew some things, but very little in comparison to the light-haired man——almost as if Kihyun didn't trust Minhyuk with knowing every little detail that he did (at least, not until the day which they executed their plans).

Kihyun was a lot smarter than he let himself off to be and Minhyuk was undoubtedly the same, however digging information out of the person who knew less was always easier. Especially when said person was easily swayed into the plans of the officers.

Still, they needed to take cautious steps and ensure that nothing would become suspicion factors within their friendship. Kihyun was already suspicious of the sudden appearance of the two newcomers who were so easily accepted into their team. It made Hoseok think that perhaps, he should have been put in charge of finding information from Minhyuk.

Hyungwon specialized in detainment——he would be better at asking the questions. Hoseok was technical and he did things his own way. Questioning others always took a greater period of time, but when he knew others, he knew them deeper than Hoseok. It was a trade-off which the agency had deemed as detrimental, when he’d taken the exams for his specialization.

Hoseok _needed_ the deeper relationship and the foundation of trust before he could find himself asking the deeper questions. So, he relied on himself to flirt his way towards the information——their initial meeting almost deemed that as the standard for their relationship and Hoseok is sure that they’d get somewhere, eventually. He just hopes that it’s in time, or Hyungwon finds out more information before him, because Yoo Kihyun was an unsolvable puzzle, from what he’s learned in the past few weeks of knowing the other man personally.

Someone who wouldn’t give information up too easily, because he deemed himself as a pool of knowledge——someone who knew things that shouldn’t be disclosed to just anyone.

As the older and more experienced officer, Hoseok felt that he needed to make more progress than Hyungwon. Yet, looking at their targets, it seemed like the process would be long and tedious——something that they’d just need to slowly work at, like building sculptures out of picks and ice, where a single miscalculation or careless error could ruin everything.

They seemed to dance on thin ice with these two.

The man who lay asleep on his shoulder reminded him greatly of himself——someone who had so much potential; someone who probably could have reached out his hands and gotten anything and everything he wanted, so long as the circumstances allowed it. That was the aura he got when he looked at Yoo Kihyun. They were parallels, walking two completely different paths, but having the chance to cross paths just once. One single time.

The minds of criminals failed to work the same way as everyone else; that, Hoseok knew as a fact. But, they still reasoned and understood the detriments of everything they did——the risks and the rewards of every little action. But, criminals have solid histories that explain everything they did, as well. From the surface, just looking at someone could never tell you what their story was.

And when he looks at Kihyun——dark lashes framing closed eyes and a small frown on a peaceful sleeping expression; his heart skipping half a beat——he can’t help but wonder, ‘ _what’s your story?’_

 


	2. second.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hours later, I realize that AO3 managed to cut out random paragraphs of the work in Part One (hence the strange spacing between words you guys might have noticed). I've added them back in (and it totaled roughly a missing 1k words?); you probably don't _need_ to reread the chapter to make sense of everything, but it may make more sense, this time around. Apologies for that!

When they arrive at the hotel they’re meant to be staying at, Kihyun and Minhyuk both vanish to the reception desk to find reasonable bookings for open rooms, and the officers find themselves sitting side by side and eyeing one another, dodging the concept of being the first to ask about new information. After a deathlike silence, though, Hyungwon exhaled in exasperation and turned to look at his partner.

“He slept almost the entire plane ride,” Hoseok reported, immediately. “I have no information.”

Hyungwon pressed his fingers to his temples, “ _He_ wouldn’t stop talking the entire plane ride. But, he also didn’t say anything important, either.”

With an amused smile on his lips, Hoseok couldn’t help but think that perhaps, he was lucky to have gotten the less talkative of the pair to investigate. Lowering his voice and leaning a little closer to his partner, the blond looked around to ensure that no one was listening in to their conversation.

“We should find a way to split up the hotel rooms, too,” Hoseok suggested, “To keep a closer eye on each of them.”

Hyungwon shook his head, “Looking at them, I’m sure that’s a bad idea. Kihyun isn’t going to talk without Minhyuk around and he’s obviously going to get suspicious. We can’t risk it. We’d have to do something else...”

“Are you suggesting we wiretap their rooms?” Hoseok arched an eyebrow and Hyungwon laughed, shrugging.

“We don’t have a warrant for that,” Hyungwon reminded his partner and Hoseok rested his elbows on his knees, hands clasped together, and thinking. "I think you're thinking too much about progressing this entire project a lot further because it seems like we haven't really done anything in several weeks, but we have." A meaningful look was shot in the blond's direction, "We've gotten them to trust us a little more, right?"

“Are you saying we should let it be?”

“We shouldn’t draw more attention than necessary to ourselves. I think a room right beside them will work as good enough distance to find out more.”

Clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth, Hoseok sighed, “Fine.”

“Loosen up, Officer Shin,” Hyungwon murmured, “That’s what you told me to do. Don’t rush things and don’t think like a rookie officer. We’re in this together.”

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

Minhyuk rushed back to Hyungwon and Hoseok first, Kihyun trailing behind him with his left hand intertwined with Minhyuk's, the set of keys in his right hand and a mildly irritated expression on his face. Watching Minhyuk flirt with people (i.e. the receptionist) has never been one of Kihyun's favourite hobbies, and when the older man continuously did so, it got annoying. But, the base of the younger man's problems was the fact that Minhyuk actually wanted to switch up their room arrangements.

In his head, Minhyuk couldn’t wrap his mind around why Kihyun was so against the entire idea of switching their room partners. Sure, he was used to the fact that they were always together, but Minhyuk personally thought that there was nothing wrong with a little bit of change. If they hated it, they really could just trade rooms again (but, Minhyuk liked to ignore the fact that Kihyun hated making his dissatisfaction with previously established plans known, after the fact).

So, the younger man kept a tight hold on the keys to the rooms and an even tighter grip on his partner’s hand, as if afraid that the older man would suddenly escape his hold and disappear. It was childish, but Kihyun would take the title over the possibility.

In plain sight, Minhyuk could easily tell anyone the reason why the younger man was acting up and putting up his walls against anyone who tried to even speak to Minhyuk. Being someone who was so used to having just Minhyuk by his side, there was a certain annoyance which was associated with the moment that anyone tried to pull the older away from him——even unintentionally.

Even if not romance, there was a possessiveness which existed in their relationship. It worked the same on Minhyuk’s side——if anyone tried to take Kihyun away from him, they wouldn’t live to see another sunrise. There were exceptions for the rule, but Minhyuk was selfish and he oft found himself rolling into bed with others, when there was an unspoken agreement that they relied on one another for the relief of everything sexual. It just happened, but Minhyuk found himself breaking their own rules. 

Kihyun never said anything about it, but from the light in his eyes, Minhyuk could see a slight disappointment——the concern of not being enough for him, when they've been around one another for six whole years and there was nothing in the world Minhyuk would trade Kihyun for. The younger man was needlessly concerned with the idea of if the black haired man genuinely _needed_ him, but being around Kihyun was like breathing air——he couldn’t live without him.

And Minhyuk is only surprised that the younger man hasn’t figured that out, yet. It had been six entire years and letting Kihyun out of his line of sight often made him uncomfortable, no matter how much he played it off as nothing. There was a reason that every time they came back to one another that Minhyuk would lay all of his affectionate touches on the younger man.

It was how he coped with the entire idea of Kihyun being back in his arms. Bliss and genuine satisfaction to return to familiarity.

It’s the reassurance that after all this time, Kihyun is there and he’s real. The reassurance that after six years, Kihyun hasn’t given up on him and that there wasn’t anyone that they could quite rely on, aside from one another. They’re together, even when they’re not and it was a constant concept which they both prayed (to a God they didn’t believe in) that it would never change. Because, when he’s with Kihyun, there was a settling feeling in his heart and mind.

It was comparable to being home, except they were always on the run and it would be impossible to settle somewhere and call it home. Even if he returned to the city he’d grown up in and his parents took him back, he wouldn’t ever feel nearly as comfortable as he was when he was by Kihyun’s side——it’s strange, perhaps even insane, but they’re every bit in love with the idea of being together but far from in love with one another.

Seeing Kihyun _jealous_ is a little more than amusing, but Minhyuk understood the feeling a little too well. So, he relented and refrained from following through with the idea of switching their roommates (a concept almost set in stone).

The brunet stood behind him, pouting, when they got back to Hoseok and Hyungwon and it made Minhyuk laugh. He shook his hand out of Kihyun’s grip and slung his arm around the younger man’s neck instead.

“We got the keys!” Minhyuk announced, voice cheerful and almost drawing the attention from everyone who stood in the lobby of the hotel. Their voices hardly carried throughout the foyer, but Minhyuk articulated his words in such a way that it just happened to echo across the room.

A young woman pushing a stroller arched an eyebrow in their direction and she laughed, when Hoseok flashed an apologetic smile in her direction. Hyungwon inhaled sharply and eyed Minhyuk, as if trying to tell him to lower his voice, because they were in a public place.

And it would be meaningful, if Minhyuk actually cared about drawing attention to them.

Trying to shift the topic away from prying eyes, Kihyun spoke up after a moment of silence with tens of sets of eyes on them, the brunet dangled the keys between his fingers, “Should we head up to the seventh floor?”

It’s Hoseok who answers him first, “Sure, let’s go up.”

“I’m sure we’re all tired from the flight,” Kihyun added quietly, before grabbing Minhyuk’s hand and pulling him in the direction of the elevators.

The officers follow them with a quick, questioning look to one another and when neither of them are looking, the dark haired officer arched an amused eyebrow at Hoseok. The blond swatted at him silently, knowing exactly the implication of the questioning gaze.

It’s the inquiry about the nature of the relationship between Yoo Kihyun and Lee Minhyuk; because, even after weeks of knowing the two, there wasn’t a clear drawn line to confirm their hypotheses about the thieves.

Yet, something like this couldn’t be described in words.

What they shared was something indefinable to those who weren’t a part of it all.

Somehow, in plain and simple words: _they were factors of one another’s functionality._

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

They settle into the predicted roommate arrangements: Minhyuk and Kihyun; Hoseok and Hyungwon.

And when they finally are unpacking their things, the officers make eye contact when they pull their identification cards out of their wallets, and it comes to them as a realization that sharing a room with the thieves could have put their mission in jeopardy.

There wasn’t a doubt in the idea that the thieves——especially Kihyun——would snoop through their things, if only just as something he was used to doing. If, by chance, he came across even their undercover identification cards, he was smart enough to deduce the possibilities of what it could have meant for them to hold such cards.

Perhaps, it would have been a smarter idea to keep their identification cards at the headquarters and just brought along their licenses, which could be kept more easily concealed; away from prying eyes and curious minds. Hyungwon could have told Hoseok that, but he wasn’t necessarily one to talk, when he took all of his cards with him, as well.

Reasonably, in order to perform a proper arrest, they needed to hold their badges and cards with them, so it wasn’t the worst of ideas——and they were lucky to have realized so early in the game.

They scoured their room to find places to hide their cards and badges——not without both officers cursing under their breaths at their own stupidity. But, the perks of hiding their things in a hotel room where no one suspected a thing was simply this: even curious minds wouldn’t know what they were searching for, in order to actually find it.

It was the sole idea which kept Hyungwon’s mentality at bay. It kept him calm to know that their identities would be safe, so long as they hid their things well.

The clock struck eleven at night when Hyungwon and Hoseok finally finish unpacking their things and made themselves comfortable in the hotel that would be their home for the next few weeks. There was no telling how long they would be staying there for, but however long it took to gather all their information and the potential move to a legal arrest, they'd wait for it.

Throwing himself back on his bed, Hyungwon groaned as the tense muscles in his back relaxed upon the contact with the soft mattress, “Whose idea was it to book this particular hotel, because they did one hell of a good job?”

With a laugh, Hoseok sat on his own bed and pulled out his phone, tapping absently at the screen; lips tugged into a small smile at the younger officer's words, "I think Kihyun suggested it because Minhyuk told us that they don't ever do anything less than four stars."

“Why don’t you ever agree to anything more than four stars?” Hyungwon asked, eyes already shut.

Hoseok rolled his eyes, in good nature, "Our unit isn't made of money, Hyungwon. We can't afford to have all of our special agents staying in five-star hotels all the time."

“But, do you _feel_ these beds?”

"Yes, I'm sitting on it. It feels like I'm sitting on clouds," he replied, tone obviously just humouring the younger officer. Hyungwon took it in stride and grinned at him.

There was a moment of silence as the younger man rested on the bed and Hoseok stared at his phone, scrolling through his notifications. It took a second before the younger sat up on the bed and threw his legs over the side of the bed and looking at his partner, solemn expression burning.

“Yes?” Hoseok inquired, after a moment of staring at his phone with the younger man drilling holes into the side of his head with his eyes.

Pursing his lips, Hyungwon seemed to contemplate his own words before he voiced them, tone careful and unsure if he was actually supposed to say anything about it.

Two years of working together on assorted missions, they still lacked the perfect alignment that made them understand the limitations of where they could discuss——in comparison to the relationship Kihyun and Minhyuk shared, they were leagues behind.

_Too much to ask, too much to learn, too much to develop._

But, for the means of what they did, they worked fine enough——the best in their respective units which happened to bring the entirety of STARSHIP’s special unit pride. That was good enough. More than enough.

“Officer Shin,” Hyungwon started, fingers absently playing with themselves as he slowly formed sentences in his mind; intent on making a point that he wasn’t quite sure of, yet.

“I’m listening,” Hoseok reassured, placing his phone down and plugging it in to let the device charge. He turned to look at his partner. In the dim light of the room, Hyungwon’s eyes seemed to shine with a concerned light, but the blond brushed it off as his own imagination.

A trick of the light, or lack thereof.

“I’m concerned about you,” Hyungwon admitted, though his tone proved that he was unsure of what he was trying to get at. Hyungwon hasn’t ever been the best at talking about his feelings. There was a great difference between conversing to detain and conversing to get his feelings across.

Straightening up in his position, Hoseok turned confused eyes to the taller man who sat across from him and pursed his lips, “Concerned? About me?”

“Can you, maybe, refrain from commenting for a little while, until I get all of this off my chest?” Hyungwon asked, carefully. The slight waver in his voice assured Hoseok that he meant to harm with his wording; simply, he was hesitant in how he should be expressing himself.

“Of course,” the blond nodded. His partner had listened attentively when he’d expressed his own ideas and told him a story; it wouldn’t do any harm to return the favour.

Patiently, the twenty-six-year-old officer waited for his partner to find his words.

"I'm concerned about you," Hyungwon repeated, pushing his tongue against the palate of his own mouth, "You've always been the kinder one between the two of us. Every assignment we've worked on before... you've found a way to reason with the other party. You're so compassionate and you try your best to understand people and the way they think——you try to develop reasons for them and what they do, even if they don't ask you to do it."

Hoseok’s brows furrowed, despite easily understanding and agreeing with the younger man’s perspective on the concept. He refrained from commented as he had promised to Hyungwon.

“I think where I’m trying to go with this is that: I’m worried that you’re going to get too attached to our targets; Kihyun and Minhyuk are likable people——I can see how that would be a thing,” Hyungwon added, “They’ve got a strange charm to them. I’m concerned that this extensive period of research might make you too sympathetic for the two of them. Officer, I’m not doubting your ability, I’m just expressing my concerns. You said we were partners and that we needed to communicate: ... so, here I am.”

Hyungwon clasped his hands together as his speech came to a close.

“I hope I haven’t offended you at all,” the brunet added as a quiet afterthought. “I just want to tell you to _be careful_ , Officer Shin. You’re kind and that’s something that can be easily manipulated. I don’t want that to happen to you. I really don’t.”

There was a silence as the blond let the words sink in before he formulated a reply. It was the first time that Hyungwon really expressed himself and it was strange to hear——heartfelt confessions without his real name spoken anywhere within the speech.

(Someday, Hoseok would realize that the honorary title of _officer_ was Hyungwon’s emotionally detached attempts of masking up sentimental value to everything he said.)

“I think that’s a fair assumption,” Hoseok mused, eyes moving over to the younger man and scanning across his expression for a brief moment, “You’re right.”

Clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth before continuing, Hoseok tilted his head towards the ceiling, "I'm too nice, aren't I? I think so, too. I reason and sympathize with the criminals without them even asking me to. It's just how I was raised, I guess. I can see why you would be concerned that it might be a detriment to our mission." A smile graced Hoseok's lips, "I'm going to promise you that I won't let it. Before anything else, I have my career——I built this entire thing up from the ground and my professionalism will go first, here. I can't let myself stray when both of us are riding on the hopes of this whole thing. _Trust me._ ”

“I do,” Hyungwon exhaled, quietly. “I really do.”

Falling back on the bed, Hoseok rested his head on one of the soft pillows and he offered his partner another smile, “I know you do. Even if you don’t say it, I think that I can tell from the way you’re careful with the things you do.” Directing his eyes to the ceiling, Hoseok chuckled, “We’re a better pair than you think, you know?”

“You think so?” Hyungwon rolled onto his side, laying down and facing Hoseok, head rested against the pillow and he pursed his lips——trying to recall moments where they could have potentially proved their teamwork.

“I do,” Hoseok answered, “We haven’t had the intense urge to rip one another to shreds, since we left headquarters, while we’re not under the supervision of the higher-ups. The only person who could really tattle on us if we tried to hit one another would be Changkyun, but even when he isn’t carefully monitoring our every action, we’re not fighting.”

With a laugh, Hyungwon grinned, “Did you just say that we haven’t had the intense urge to rip one another to shreds?”

Mischief danced in the twenty-six-year-old's eyes and he hummed, challenging, "I did."

“Oh, you don’t want to know what goes on in my head,” Hyungwon teased.

“Am I allowed to arrest you for plotting murder?”

“Not quite murder, officer. I’m afraid you can’t.”

They burst into laughter at the exchange after a moment of silence and Hoseok’s eyes are glistening under the dim light when he’s calmed down enough to form sentences which didn’t sound like a hysterical, breathless and incoherent explosion of laughter.

They catch their breaths and stare absently at the ceiling, laying on their backs. One of the pillows have made their way into a home in Hyungwon’s arms and Hoseok is empty handed, sprawled on his bed with his chest heaving.

“Hey,” Hoseok called.

The twenty-five-year-old officer made a noncommittal sound in response to his partner.

“Thanks for telling me about your concerns,” the blond told him.

If Hyungwon had anything more to say, then he doesn’t voice it. He merely turned onto his side, back facing Hoseok, a small smile on his lips——chest feeling a little lighter after he’d told the blond about the things weighing his mind heavy.

Hoseok doesn’t mind.

They grew up in completely different atmospheres——almost different worlds——and they needed the communication to see the world the way that the other did. Hoseok was better than him at being compassionate and understanding to someone else, who happened to hold a contrasting manner of thought; Hyungwon was still learning, but it was better to learn with someone you were practically bound to be with for extensive periods of time than anything.

For the time being, they _worked_.

 _And that was enough_.

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

New York greets them with the open arms they had never felt in places which should have been home to them——Seoul City for Minhyuk and Kihyun; Los Angeles for Hyungwon; London for Hoseok. New York City embraces them kindly with a familiar scent, despite the city being completely foreign to them.

It’s breathtaking.

The clock struck noon; Minhyuk and Hyungwon were still fast asleep in their hotel rooms. Kihyun, impatiently, had escaped the room he shared with Minhyuk and headed to the breakfast buffet in the hotel. He’d run into Hoseok there. It seemed the older man was an early riser as well. Over scrambled eggs and greasy bacon, the two laugh about the unfortunate sleeping states of their respective partners and converse casually over a thousand different things.

Kihyun has the prongs of his fork in his mouth, despite not actually eating anything, the corners of his eyes crinkled in amusement as he watched the blond from across the table. Hoseok was trying to shove his piece of toast into his mouth because Kihyun insisted that the taller man couldn't fit as much food into his cheeks as Kihyun could. It was extremely childish, but in the moment, no one was paying attention to them and that tense atmosphere the two of them seemed to vanish when they were alone.

“You’re actually such an idiot,” Kihyun was half-crying when Hoseok has his cheeks stuffed with toast and the sharper edge of the bread scratches the roof of his mouth, painfully. “I can’t believe this.”

With his mouth full, Hoseok coughed as he tried to dislodge the bread and spit it out to tend to his wound. The brunet sitting across from him was shaking from his laughter, making no attempt to reach across the table and help his companion. Hoseok does fine on his own, awkwardly opening and closing his mouth when the bread is finally out.

Kihyun made a face at the mushed up food, but his eyes still formed pretty crescents, lashes decorated with a couple teardrops from having laughed too hard. Hoseok took a moment to admire it before he shook his head——strange.

“I’m just trying to prove you wrong,” Hoseok shrugged. Kihyun dabbed his tears away with the tips of his fingers, a bright smile on his lips——and a part of the older man kind of wants to tell him that he has a nice smile.

Shaking off the feeling, the blond pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth and pursed his lips, and Kihyun takes pity on his stupidity. Placing his fork down, the younger man tilted his head and examined the taller man’s expression.

“Come here, let me see,” he said, softly. The officer opened his mouth for Kihyun to see, and the younger man laughed. “Not like that, I can’t see anything.”

Hoseok closed his mouth again. When Kihyun gets up from his seat and comes over to Hoseok’s side, taking a seat next to him and carefully placing his fingers onto the older man’s jaw, Hoseok froze.

“Minhyuk does dumb things and hurts himself often,” Kihyun explained, “And so, I actually have reasons to put my first-aid and CPR training sessions into use. Looks like if you stay with us, I have a second reason. Hopefully, Hyungwon isn’t nearly as dumb as either of you?”

Hoseok narrowed his eyes at the remark and frowned a little bit. The younger man only flashed him an innocent smile——lips curving upwards prettily.

“Stop making that face and open your mouth,” Kihyun said, “It’s not a pretty look on you.”

“Am I pretty?” Hoseok challenged. Kihyun rolled his eyes, shaking his head.

“I’m prettier,” he replied, tapping at the older man’s jaw. Hoseok didn’t argue the remark.

Quickly taking a look when the blond's mouth fell open, Kihyun pursed his lips as his brows furrowed; "You have a cut on the roof of your mouth, but it looks like you'll be okay if you don't eat anything hard for the next few days. When we go back upstairs, we can probably find something to put on it to make it less sore."

Hoseok made a face, “But, it’s in my mouth?”

“There’s such thing as medication that you can put in your mouth, Hoseok,” Kihyun told him, “I’m not trying to poison you to death, just yet.”

The blond pouted, picking up his fork and toying with the remnants of his forgotten breakfast. With a small, endearing smile, the younger man got up from his seat and returned to his side of the table. Instead of sitting down, however, he grabbed his dishes and arched an eyebrow at the officer.

“That face doesn’t look cute on you, either,” he said, “I’m done. Do you want to head back up to the rooms?”

Hoseok seemed to ponder the idea for a moment, before he dropped his fork into the plate and sighed, getting up from his seat, “If Hyungwon and Minhyuk are still asleep, do you want to go around the city for a little while?”

Smiling, Kihyun nodded, “I was going to go alone, but since you suggested it, do you want to come with me?”

“Of course.”

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

Their first morning out in the city has Kihyun’s eyes wide with amazement as he studied his surroundings with an obvious excitement——it’s everything he’s read about and researched, because six years after he’d changed his life completely, it was the first time he set foot into the famous streets of New York with intent to explore.

Minhyuk and Hyungwon were still asleep, true to their predictions. So, Kihyun and Hoseok found themselves exploring the city together.

Kihyun has the brightest smile on his lips and he's leading the way, despite having no idea where they were headed. Some couple hours later, they're hungry and have no idea where they were. Kihyun's pride would never let him admit that they were lost, but when Hoseok raised an eyebrow and asked him curiously if he knew how to get back to the hotel, Kihyun was at a loss for answers.

“I’d get lost on my first day, too,” Hoseok reassured him, before turning to find a stranger and ask for directions. The brunet awkward trailed behind him——not close enough to show that they were together, but close enough to hear what the blond was saying.

“I’m not lost,” Kihyun murmured, stubbornly.

But, Hoseok shot him a look, before leaving him to speak to a foreign woman he’d stopped in the middle of the street. She directed them, initially with confusion in her eyes, but eventually grasped where they were meant to be and turned to point out the directions.

When the blond returned to his side and explained the directions to Kihyun, the brunet nodded and mapped out the path in his head, before moving according to the instructions. Hoseok followed him, a step behind and to his left.

After a moment of silence, the brunet turned to look at the blond.

“Where did you grow up?” Kihyun asked, curiously.

“London,” Hoseok replied, “London, England.”

“That explains the accent,” Kihyun mused, “I never noticed it before. Did you speak to me in English when we first met?”

“I think I did. The first thing I think I said to you was _hi_ ," Hoseok shoved his hands into his pockets as he continued to walk down the sidewalk, "But, we don't usually speak English to each other, do we?"

“I can assure you that the first thing you said to me was definitely _not_ hi. But, you said you wanted to forget about that, so I’ll let you live. And... I wouldn’t mind it if we did speak English to one another all the time,” Kihyun remarked, smiling lightly and kicking at the pavement before taking a step forward and Hoseok chuckled. “Minhyuk might want to punch me, but that’s fine.”

“Why is that?” Hoseok asked, curiously. Kihyun laughed softly.

“He hates the way that I speak,” he replied, “He says that it sounds too posh for what I’m really saying.”

Hoseok snorted in amusement, "Hyungwon thinks I sound funny when I speak in English. He laughs every time I do it. It's extremely annoying, and a little obnoxious. It makes me want to punch him in the face before I realize that I'm not actually supposed to knock out my partner in crime. So, I settle with feeling self-conscious about the language I've been speaking since I was born."

“You’ve got a nice voice. Don’t be self-conscious about that,” Kihyun insisted. “I like the accent.”

“Oh? Are you one of those people who think my accent is _hot_?” he teased, expression suddenly changing; quick footsteps catching up to the younger man, who suddenly refused to meet his eyes. Smirking wickedly, the officer tailed Kihyun——who was very obviously trying to hide a blush of embarrassment——and proceeded to speak in the aforementioned language, “Oh my god, you _are_.”

Instinctively, Kihyun sped up——Hoseok isn’t that much taller than him, it’s hardly noticeable of a difference, but the other man’s longer strides had him by his side almost immediately, “I changed my mind, I’d definitely mind it if you spoke to me in English all the time.”

“No, you wouldn’t. You’d appreciate it.” Hoseok grinned.

“You’re a piece of shit, I hate you.”

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

They return to the hotel in time to catch Minhyuk and Hyungwon both sitting in the hotel room which was shared by the thieves. Kihyun waltzed into the hotel room, immediately heading for the closet and shrugging off his jacket. Hyungwon’s eyes followed the smaller man’s figure, while Minhyuk threw down a pair of cards in front of him.

“Are you guys playing cards?” Hoseok inquired, eyebrows furrowing slightly. Hyungwon held up his cards——from the mirror, Kihyun could make out the two Aces he held in his hands.

“What does it look like?” he challenged. Hoseok rolled his eyes, settling onto the bed next to his partner and peering over his shoulder at the cards.

"It looks like you're losing miserably when you're holding a godly hand," Hoseok retorted, narrowing his eyes at the brunet. Sheepishly scanning his cards again, Hyungwon groaned.

“I don’t know how to play, it was his idea.”

"No, you're just bad. We played this with Jooheon and Changkyun all the time, back in Los Angeles." Hoseok remarked. Hyungwon studied his partner before the blond realized what he was saying and cleared his throat. He hadn't said anything that might have given them away, luckily. "You're just bad."

“Who’s Jooheon?” Minhyuk asked, leaning back in between Kihyun’s legs when the younger man crawled onto the bed behind him (dressed in a black t-shirt and grey sweatpants). Kihyun’s arms wrapped around the older man, instinctively.

“Friend of Changkyun’s?” Kihyun added.

Hyungwon shot Hoseok a quick glare, before clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth (and Hoseok silently wished that he could still do that without making his mouth hurt like a motherfucker).

“Jooheon is to Changkyun whatever Kihyun is to you,” Hyungwon replied.

Minhyuk made a face, confusion clouding his expression, “... either you’re not sure what Kihyun and I are, or you’re perfectly aware and Changkyun is _actually_ releasing all of his sexual frustrations on his partner in crime."

From behind Hyungwon, Hoseok shot Kihyun a look that seemed as if he were actually questioning the sexual relations between the two thieves. Rolling his eyes as he rested his cheek on his partner’s shoulder, Kihyun arched an eyebrow as if saying: _you can’t really be asking me that_. Simply because he’d thought it was quite obvious.

“... I didn’t think it was like that,” Hyungwon cleared his throat, looking a little uncomfortable.

“So, what did you think it was?”

“Aren’t you two complicatedly dating?”

"Do you think I would have let Kihyun sleep with Hoseok if we were dating?" Minhyuk asked, incredulously (and Kihyun squawked a disgusted _no!_ ). Hyungwon’s eyes widened and he shot the blond an accusatory look.

“When did _that_ happen?” he demanded. Hoseok flashed a sheepish smile and Kihyun laughed into the crook of Minhyuk’s neck.

“The first night we met,” Kihyun supplied. “I take it you’re the friend who ditched him at the nightclub with me, then?”

Flushing in slight embarrassment, the tall officer shifted his eyes away and covered his face with long, slender fingers, “I don’t need to hear any more about this. Hoseok, I don’t recall telling you to go _hook up_ with someone, because I was leaving!”

The blond officer shrugged, “He’s kind of irresistible, though.”

Kihyun bat his lashes at the officer, playfully and Hyungwon feigned sticking his fingers down his throat. Grinning, Minhyuk chimed in lightly, “He’s got a cute ass that should be tapped.”

Hyungwon groaned loudly.

“I agree,” Hoseok chuckled, winking at Kihyun when the younger man’s expression flushed at his partner’s sudden remark. His cheeks only turned a darker colour when Hoseok agreed and he grabbed one of the pillows, letting go of Minhyuk and burying his face into the cushion.

“I hate all of you!”

“Of course you do, baby,” the black haired thief smirked.

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

Establishing their game plan is easy enough. Hyungwon and Minhyuk were better at the practical things, so Kihyun and Hoseok paired up to take care of the tactical things. So, sometime a week and a half later, when they’d settled into the cities and taken care of everything essential, Minhyuk found himself walking the streets with the tall brunet officer.

They stood out oddly against the street filled with common citizens; despite not doing anything special at all, they had seemed to have an aura around them which turned heads. Minhyuk’s slender fingers wrapped themselves around a cup of coffee and his lips closed around the bright green straw.

“Have you ever been to New York?” Hyungwon asked, hands shoved into his pockets.

Minhyuk shook his head, “When I was younger, I had the chance to go, but it never interested me. Look at me, now.”

“The chance to come to New York?” Hyungwon repeated, brows furrowed as he listened for the clarification.

Minhyuk nodded, lips pressed into a thin line as he lowered the plastic coffee cup from his lips. It took him a moment of silence and being unsure of if he truly wanted to disclose the information of his family to the younger man.

In his life, only Kihyun knew about his roots——he’d only found it necessarily to explain his past to the younger man, because they were partners; communication and understanding was the first step in trust——and he never really enjoyed talking about those who had abandoned him (and the ones he’d walked away from without a regret, after). Despite telling himself that he was over it and not finding himself in immense pain at the thought, he was bitter when the topic surfaced.

Even after eight years, the dark haired man could still remember the way that his mother had looked at him with heartbroken eyes when he fixed both his parents with threatening eyes and insisted that he wouldn’t ever return to their estate. Initially, the entire mansion had thought that Minhyuk was throwing a tantrum and that he couldn’t live without them. They firmly believed that a sheltered boy who came from luxury with everything served to him on a silver platter couldn’t have possibly learned how to live in the real world——where reality beat down on frail minds like a relentless drum.

How wrong they'd been when they realized that the young man had been serious——that he'd been completely certain of the fact that he could strive in the world alone. They knew nothing about the boy who sneaked out of their home at late hours in an attempt to find a more realistic life——something _free_ r. His escapades provided him with everything he needed to know.

Looking back his life, he learned so much more from hours of exploring the city in the darkness of the night than he did from the close-roomed lessons on etiquette and behaviour which he'd been enrolled into as a child. He couldn't even recall how to fold his hands properly over his lap in the presence of his elders at a formal dinner.

Everything he pretended to learn was so terrible _useless_ in the real world——the harsh, bitter reality which he'd fallen in love with before he'd even abandoned the belief that maybe someday, his family would accept him for what he wanted to be.

Still, he smiled weakly at the brunet and nodded.

“Yeah,” he replied, “I came from a pretty wealthy family. There were plenty of opportunities to travel to the branches they had all over the world, but a majority of the time, I chose to stay in South Korea. I didn’t want to go anywhere where I would have to meet up with stuck up brat sons of the rich, let alone the _spoiled, foreign sons of the rich_.”

“You sound like you despise them,” Hyungwon remarked.

Minhyuk ran his fingers through his hair, free hand gripping the cup of coffee a little tighter, and he offered a bitter smile, chuckling, “Do I? Sometimes, I come off a little bit strong when I talk about my past. As you can see, I’m not one of them, anymore. I don’t think I ever really was. Couldn’t bring myself to do that kind of thing, though I was damn good at pretending, if I did say so myself.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m a _thief_ , Hyungwon,” Minhyuk answered. “I highly doubt any rich boy you would ever encounter came from riches. Thieves go from rags to riches, not riches to even richer.”

Looking forward as they headed into a bigger crowd of people, Minhyuk sighed as Hyungwon looked at him with a silent stare. He averted his eyes from the taller man and continued to head straight. They didn’t have a set destination——they were mindlessly wandering for the sake of exploring the city. The taller brunet seemed to be pondering his words——Minhyuk absently wondered what a reserved man like Chae Hyungwon could really have to say about his hostile response.

“Everything about you is a surprise to me,” Hyungwon admitted, voice drifting off as he continued to think of his next words. Minhyuk found it entirely too strange——he was used to Kihyun’s way of speaking without a filter; not meticulously planned wording and careful tone. “I really don’t know what to expect with you, ever. I feel like I always need my guard up.”

“That’s cute.”

The black haired man wanted to laugh——in spite of himself, perhaps——but as a stranger pushed past them in the crowd, Minhyuk stumbled and Hyungwon reached out to catch him before he fell. When he grasped himself again, the brunet’s eyes suddenly widened when he found himself face-to-face with a familiar logo——suddenly realizing where they’d wandered off to.

He’d been hoping to avoid it for the rest of his life, but it seemed the devil answered when one spoke his name.

Minhyuk stepped backwards hesitantly, almost stepping onto Hyungwon’s feet, before he studied the spirals around fancy cursive letters; hoping—— _praying_ ——that it was a trick of his eye. Praying that the curling letters didn’t form the symbol he’d watch become engraved onto everything he owned as a young child.

_It wasn’t._

Slowly, terror flooded his veins and the adrenaline pumped through his veins.

“Keeping your guard up is a good idea,” Minhyuk replied, tone in a blind panic. “We need to get out of here. _Now._ ”

Confusion shrouded Hyungwon’s mind when the older man grabbed his wrist and tugged him as they both took off in the opposite direction of whatever Minhyuk had spotted. He didn’t have the time to ask questioned, but his blood rushed to his ears as he ran after the black haired thief.

_What did he see?_

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

****

Two blocks and a half down the street, when they’ve finally run far enough for Minhyuk to begin to lose his energy and slow down a little bit, Hyungwon reached forward and grasped the older man’s wrist——his instinctive touch for prosecution pushing the older man up against a brick wall on the side of the street. Minhyuk’s eyes were blown wide for the aftershock, looking confused when the brunet held him against the wall; strong arms keeping him unmoving.

“Minhyuk,” Hyungwon called, shaking the older man a little, “What the hell was that?”

Breathless, Minhyuk stayed quiet as if his thoughts were finally catching up to him and he averted his eyes——not daring to meet Hyungwon's eyes. It had been so unexpected, but he was naive if he thought that he wouldn't run into something which would bring him back to his childhood years. The black haired man's irises shook as Hyungwon practically towered over him with confused eyes which seemed to gleam with a sliver of concern.

But, it would be a surprise to not be concerned or someone who freaked out before your eyes, over something invisible to you. Hyungwon’s expression of concern lay in the way he held onto Minhyuk and fixed him with worried eyes——though, the older man seemed to be blind to the look.

“Don’t worry about me,” he breathed, “I’m okay. It’s nothing.”

Hyungwon narrowed disbelieving eyes at the older man, “No. Tell me what’s wrong. It’s not normal to just run away like that when you see something.”

Minhyuk’s hands curled into tight fists and he still refused to meet the younger man’s eyes. “It’s nothing.”

Through gritted teeth, Hyungwon spoke, “Minhyuk.”

“Let go of me, Hyungwon,” Minhyuk snapped, shaking out of the taller man’s grip.

Surprised at the brunet’s outburst, Hyungwon took a step back, loosening his grip on the smaller man’s wrists and suddenly becoming very aware of the eyes of strangers on them in the middle of the street. His hands fell to his sides and into his pockets; he shifted guilty eyes away from Minhyuk.

 _Space_ , he needed space. He refused to answer because he needed the space. Hyungwon knew better than to try to force answers out of someone. He was an officer who specialized in detainment and inquiry——he should be better than to try and force answers. Minhyuk was visibly shaken and that was far from the right time to ask questions.

But, a force inside the younger man had demanded that he figure out what was going on.

His mind wouldn’t let him admit that it was out of concern.

(Simply because that would lead his mind into thinking that he cared. And _caring_ was opening a pathway to destruction.)

By the time Hyungwon grasped himself and snapped out of it, the other man was already a good hundred meters away from him——quick footsteps trying to escape the taller man and headed in the direction of their hotel. The thick atmosphere around them seemed to linger despite their distance.

With long strides, Hyungwon held his breath and followed the older man.

_He’d fucked up._

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

Minhyuk doesn’t ignore Hyungwon for the next few days after the incident——Hyungwon avoided Minhyuk. With a heavy heart and a confused mind, the younger man couldn’t help but think that he ought to avoid the older. If only for the sake of keeping a better relationship between the two of them. But, he couldn’t be any more wrong in his thoughts.

And it isn’t until Hoseok noticed that every single day, Hyungwon left their hotel room a little earlier and came back a little later——simply because it would ensure that he wouldn’t run into the older man——does Hyungwon stop the habit, with a little help from the blond officer (“You can’t just avoid him forever, you know. I might as well be working a solo mission, if you do.” Hoseok had told him with a frown).

Usually, making mistakes involved apologizing and trying to rekindle a better relationship with someone.

Hyungwon didn’t know how to do that.

He'd grown up in a family which taught him to be detached from his emotions for the sake of enforcing his own authority——an entire legacy of STARSHIP officers and agents would raise their children according to the things they learned in the academy. Hyungwon fell the strongest victim to the lessons.

So, when Hoseok gently suggested that he apologize to the older man and develop a better, speaking relationship with Minhyuk, Hyungwon's eyes widened and he froze in spot. The blond officer knew better than anyone else, after knowing Hyungwon for a solid couple years, that the younger man was awkward when it came to expressing his emotions; with a gentle pat on the younger man's shoulder, though, Hoseok assured him that Minhyuk would understand.

And ever so awkwardly, the younger man timed himself before he planned his 'chance encounter' with Minhyuk. Long, slender fingers fumbled with the buttons of his jacket before he stepped outside into the cool air of the summer night——after talking to Kihyun for a few hours, the light-haired man had finally relented and disclosed the location of his partner.

Hyungwon took careful strides to the looming structure of the bridge, accordingly to Kihyun’s instructions, eyes shaking as he searched the open space for the thief.

He found Minhyuk leaning against the railing of the bridge, several metres away from the start of the walkway, looking out at the cityscape and expanse of a beautiful waterfront. He held his fingers to his lips and the bright orange light of a flame could be seen from where Hyungwon was standing. There was something melancholic about the older man’s stance.

Hyungwon suddenly tensed.

Replaying Hoseok’s reassurance in the back of his mind, Hyungwon shook it off and hoped that Minhyuk hadn’t noticed him, yet. There were plenty of people who crossed the suspension bridge in the middle of the night—— _what were the chances that Minhyuk would notice him immediately?_

 _Slim,_ he hoped.

Taking a breath (and gathering all of his courage; praying that it was enough), the brunet stepped up next to the older man and leaned against the rail of the bridge, beside Minhyuk, “I didn’t know you smoked.”

“I don’t usually,” Minhyuk replied, easily. Almost _too_ casual. “I didn’t know you were the type to stand off to the side and watch someone for uncountable minutes before actually approaching them.”

Suddenly embarrassed, Hyungwon tried to brush off the older man’s tone——Minhyuk was reasonably unhappy with him, but it made it all so much more difficult to grasp his own mentality. Swallowing hard, the brunet drummed his fingers against the metal of the rail and cleared his throat.

“I didn’t know how to approach you.”

“You still sound terribly nervous,” Minhyuk countered, pulling the thin cigarette from his lips and finally turning to look at Hyungwon. He unceremoniously blew the smoke into the younger man’s face, arching an eyebrow; eyes scanning down Hyungwon’s body without a word. “How did you know I was here?”

Lips pressed into a thin line, Hyungwon tried his best not to stammer——to control his nerves, “I asked Kihyun.” he admitted.

A scoff. “Did he find out that I stole his cigarettes, again?”

Minhyuk arched an eyebrow and pulled the mentioned pack from the pocket of his jacket, casually holding it out to Hyungwon, as if offering it to him. Hyungwon hesitated in responding——he didn’t have an answer to the question, nor did he know what to do in response to the offering. Minhyuk rolled his eyes, pulling one of the rolled sticks out of the packet and lighting it, before holding it to the older, “I know you smoke. Take it.”

Careful fingers took the item into his fingers and he watched as the flame burned the ashes, before placing the cigarette between his lips. Minhyuk’s eyes softened, as if satisfied, before he looked back to the waterfront.

Along with the exhaling of puffs of smoke, Hyungwon seemed to relax a little. He stayed quiet, unsure of how to start their conversation (unsure of how to start his apology) until Minhyuk broke the silence again.

"Why did you look for me?" Minhyuk asked. His tone was flat and detached as if he weren't really listening, but from his peripheral vision, Hyungwon could see the way the black haired man's glimmered with curiosity.

Hesitance filled the brunet’s tone and he averted his eyes, not letting them meet Minhyuk’s. A lump grew in the younger man’s throat, and suddenly, it was difficult to speak, all over again. “... I wanted,” he paused, fingers gripping the rail a little tighter, “I wanted to apologize.”

Minhyuk turned to him, placing the cigarette back between his lips, “Apologize?”

"I wanted to apologize for prying," he added, "I'm sorry for trying to force things out of you when you clearly didn't want to tell me. I'm sorry for pushing you against the wall——I want to know if you're hurt, by the way. I'm sorry——"

“Are you going to apologize for ignoring me for the past few days, too?” Minhyuk interrupted.

Like a deer caught in headlights, Hyungwon's eyes widened and he turned to look at Minhyuk for the first time since he started speaking. The older man pursed his lips and crossed his arms over his chest, resting his elbow on the rail and bracing his weight with it.

“Because, if I’m honest, I’m a lot more upset about that, than I am about feeling cornered in interrogation and being manhandled.”

The twenty-five-year-old officer had the decency to blush at the remark and he cleared his throat, "I... Minhyuk, I just want you to know that I'm sorry for everything I did to upset you. I shouldn't have done it, but... my mind got the better of me when I suddenly got worried about you. You looked so _scared_ and I didn’t know what to do.”

“You were worried about me?” Minhyuk’s tone softened and he looked at the younger man with curious eyes.

Not wanting to admit it because of his pride, Hyungwon pressed his lips together and nodded——almost unnoticeable.

“I didn’t... I didn’t know what to do,” Hyungwon repeated, “I’m sorry.”

There was a moment of silence between the two of them before Minhyuk sighed softly and crushed his cigarette between his fingers, letting the ashes burn the palm of his hand as he extinguished the light.

“Stop apologizing,” Minhyuk decidedly answered, “I’ll forgive you.”

Hyungwon almost let the sigh of relief leave his lips loudly, but he caught himself and exhaled it in the form of a grey swirl of smoke, instead. “Thank you.”

Minhyuk didn’t answer him, but there was a light flickering in the older man’s eyes against the moonlight and the reflection of the water beneath them. Another silence fell over them——this time, comfortable and peaceful. The storm in Hyungwon’s mind slowly slipped away from him and he brought the cigarette to his lips again, inhaling quietly.

“Do you want to hear it?” Minhyuk asked. Hyungwon looked at him, curiously.

“Hear what?”

A bitter smile, “My story.”

Holding his breath again, Hyungwon pondered his choices. If he were Hoseok, he would jump at the opportunity——it would mean that he would build a greater understanding of the older man: the reasons he did things and everything he believed in. It would be a reason for him to ask all the questions he needed to know. Undoubtedly, it was the chance of a lifetime to get to know Lee Minhyuk. However, in Hyungwon’s mind, he couldn’t help but think about the attachment that Hoseok felt to every single person he unwound in such ways. There was an imminent fear in his head with such emotional attachments.

Still, his curiosity took the better of him and led him towards nodding (and an absent part of his mind suddenly understood why his partner could never resist trying to get to know people, like this).

“Will you tell me?” he asked, softly.

Had he not been paying close attention to the brunet, he wouldn’t have noticed the way Minhyuk nodded and he wouldn’t have noticed the ghost of a smile on the older man’s lips. Minhyuk stayed silent for a moment, before he started to speak, “You know LXS Corporations, right? The chain of luxury shopping malls?”

At the mention, Hyungwon turned to look at the older man, realization dawning in his eyes as if he were shocked that he hadn’t made the connection before. “You’re Lee Minhyuk, the heir to LXS,” he managed.

The bitter smile returned to Minhyuk’s lips and he shook his head, “Not quite. Not anymore.”

Before he could ask any questions, though, Minhyuk continued his story, eyes returning to the open expanse of water.

“I _was_ the heir to all of that.” The black haired man’s eyes scanned across the water beneath them, “I grew up with all of that luxury and everyone shrouding me with all the love I could have ever asked for——but, that doesn’t go to say that I ever _asked_ for that love from anyone but my parents. That’s probably the only thing I asked for which I never got. But, it’s hard to be the heir to something from a family which disowned you, y’know?”

Hyungwon’s eyes widened, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know...”

“Don’t be sorry. I probably deserved it.” Minhyuk flashed a weak smile and pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth, as if trying to keep himself from bursting into tears. “I don’t really care anymore. It was eight years ago; I lived a majority of my life without them, when they had the opportunity to be there for me; there isn’t going to be a difference after they’ve explicitly told me that they’re _never_ going to be there for me.”

“You _do_ care,” Hyungwon objected, exhaling smoke and bringing his eyes to meet with Minhyuk’s. “You’re clearly still upset about it; look at the way you talk about it. Why do you think you deserve it?”

“Hyungwon, look at me,” Minhyuk laughed, but it’s the sound of bitter laughter from a man who didn’t know what to believe in anymore, “I’m a _thief_. You should know how that feels. Don’t we both stem from the same thing? _Birds of a feather_ ——that’s what they call it, right? We’re both _criminals_ in the eyes of the people around us; the weeds in society, right? Kihyun and I might not have ill intentions, but no one really cares about that. They don’t care _why_ we do what we do. They don’t care that we take from the rich and give to the poor——what matters to them is that we’re making a profit that they’re not making; that we’re taking things that aren’t ours. Even if it’s to give to those who _need it more_.

“I started _stealing_ at a young age, y’know? I got sick of doing everything like the prim and proper heir I was supposed to be; it didn’t feel _right_ to me. That cost me what was supposed to be my _family_ , I guess. I started sneaking out at night; stealing from the shopping centres which my parents owned——I gave those things to charities. They never caught me; they just brushed it off as a shrinkage in inventory at the end of the month, blaming it on the _poor_ committing to thievery. I hated the way that _those_ people, my _parents_ I guess I’m supposed to call them, thought——the way they thought that the poor were always up to no good when they walked into our shopping centres.

"I acted the part of the angelic and obedient son until they found out that I was visiting clubs and drinking with my friends, cheating on tests and skipping class——all that, instead of going to the annoying social gatherings that they _trained_ me to behave in. The act didn’t last long, apparently. They looked so _disappointed_ in the fact that I wanted to be free and do something other than what they expected of me. I didn’t want to grow up to be one of _those_ people——one of the stuck up rich brats that thought poorly of people outside of who they were. They threatened to disown me if I didn't stop my _bad habits_ , as if they actually thought that I was _afraid_ of that. They thought I couldn’t live without them.

“They didn’t know me at all,” Minhyuk’s fists clenched and somewhere in the back of his mind, he regretted extinguishing his cigarette, because there wasn’t anything to fiddle with anymore. “They were my parents, but they knew nothing about me. They didn’t let me develop to have any sort of _personality_ of my own. If I didn’t choose to go my own way, away from everything they tried to teach me, I would have just been like one of those _robotic_ , trophy heirs with no brains. Wouldn’t that have been so sad?”

Unsure of what to say, Hyungwon exhaled a slow stream of smoke from between his lips and lowered his eyes to where the water glistened under the moonlight, “I suppose it would have been,” he started, slowly.

Hyungwon’s mind reeled with a million questions that he wanted to ask——he was suddenly filled with an uncontrollable urge of _wanting to know Minhyuk better_. He couldn’t stop his lips from moving and letting them form a quiet question, so soft that it might have blended in with the gentle breeze, if Minhyuk weren’t listening for his voice.

And suddenly, he couldn’t help himself from wanting to know more. He couldn’t find himself reasoning with the detriments of getting to know the older man a little better——and perhaps, this was the internal battle which Hoseok always seemed to go through when he researched his targets.

“Do you ever miss them?” The taller man’s voice was soft with curiosity and Minhyuk laughed, softly——it’s less of a bitter sound now, but it struck the air with a sharpness Hyungwon hadn’t been expecting (almost as if it were out of sheer disbelief).

“No,” Minhyuk answered, pushing himself off the rail of the bridge and turning to look at Hyungwon with a quiet gaze, for a fleeting few seconds, “Kihyun’s my family now. He’s what I have and all I have.”

Shoving his hands into his pockets and pushing past Hyungwon, the smaller man headed in the direction of their hotel. Letting his mind linger on the older man’s words, Hyungwon turned his head as Minhyuk brushed past him——the black haired man stopped his footsteps when he was a good two meters away from the taller man.

“I’m heading back to the hotel,” Minhyuk said, “Are you coming?”

Hyungwon dropped the remainder of his burning cigarette and nodded, despite Minhyuk not seeing it.

“Yeah, I’m coming.”

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

Kihyun sat cross-legged on Hoseok’s bed, lips pursed as he leaned over to point at the touch screen of his laptop, which rested on Hoseok’s lap. If Minhyuk and Hyungwon were better at executing their plans, then Hoseok and Kihyun were undoubtedly in charge of making sure that everything went smoothly——or at least, that was how they decided that everything would happen, with the addition of two members to their team.

"——that route would be a quicker escape route if everything went to shit," Kihyun finished explaining, pushing his bangs out of his eyes and turning to look at Hoseok, for confirmation.

The blond pursed his lips, furrowing his brows as he studied out the map of surrounding the museum which Kihyun had pulled up and drawn all over. The red markings on the screen made minimal sense to him and Hoseok tilted his head as if trying to take in the information from another angle would magically make him understand everything. It didn't.

“But, how do you know that it’ll be the fastest route?”

Kihyun groaned, resting his head on Hoseok's shoulder——exhausted from explaining every tiny detail to the blond. Unbeknownst to Kihyun, Hoseok was playing dumb in order to pry out the main details as to how Kihyun would think if everything went to shit for the officers themselves. So, the light brown haired man took a breath before straightening himself out, preparing to go back over the plans for escape.

“Look, taking this route,” he pointed to the screen, “Would require taking the elevator and there’s never any time for elevators when you’re running away from the cops——hell, you’re better jumping out a window than taking an elevator when you’re running away from the cops. Only dumb people do that. Like, really dumb, because even _Minhyuk_ wouldn't do something like that. This route demands that we take the stairs; at worst, we could break a leg when we jump down a flight of stairs, or two. I've mastered that art, and I'm pretty sure almost every thief has. That's the best I can explain it, Hoseok."

The blond opened his mouth to ask another question.

“If you’re about to tell me you still don’t get it, I could also leave you to die,” Kihyun added, bitterly. Lifting his head from where it rested on Hoseok’s shoulder, Kihyun frowned, “Didn’t Changkyun say that you two were good at what you do? Why are you asking me such beginner questions?”

Feigning rubbing his eyes, Hoseok pouted his lips a little, “I’m tired, sorry.”

“Do you sleep at all?” Kihyun asked, taking his laptop away from Hoseok and saving his project before closing the lid and turning to look at the blond, properly. With a sheepish smile, Hoseok nodded.

“I do,” he answered, “I just happen to get tired really quickly. I think it happens when you’re around.”

Crossing his arms over his chest, Kihyun huffed, “Excuse me? Are you saying I’m boring?”

A cheeky smile danced across Hoseok's lips and he arched an amused eyebrow at the younger man as if challenging him to say anything more. Kihyun doesn't——he merely rolled his eyes and made to move off the bed. Hoseok was faster, though.

Strong arms reached out and he grabbed the younger man and pulled him back onto the bed and into his arms. Kihyun squeaked in surprise and he struggled in the blond’s grip and the officer laughed as he wrapped his arms around the smaller man’s waist and trapped him in the tight hold.

“Hoseok, let me go!” Kihyun complained, but the corners of his lips pulled into a small smile.

If Hoseok noticed the way Kihyun’s expression changed, then he didn’t say anything about it. Still, he didn’t loosen his grip and he fell back on the bed with Kihyun on top of him and his eyes twinkled with mischief——“What if I don’t want to?”

“You’re such a _kid!_ Let me go!”

"Don't want to," Hoseok repeated, rolling onto his side so that Kihyun laid next to him, still in his arms, their faces close to one another. Kihyun's eyes visibly widened at the distance between them and his struggling slowed to a stop.

Somewhere between the hours of mapping out New York City like memorizing the patterns on the back of their hands and spending almost all their waking hours together, Kihyun found himself becoming rather fond of the blond. It was comfortable to be with him, to say the least——perhaps, even more so than with Minhyuk, but then again, that could be a delusion (from spending so much time with someone who _wasn’t_ Minhyuk for the first time in almost his entire life).

There was something comforting about being in Hoseok’s arms that Kihyun would never, _could never_ , actually dare to admit aloud, but something that he could never honestly deny if actually asked. The blond haired man seemed to look at him with a light in his brilliant eyes, and it might be his imagination, but there was just _something_ about Hoseok which drew Kihyun in and kept him. In better words, it _captivated_ him, even.

Undoubtedly, they'd grown closer in the absence of their partners, but it was so hard to explain. Somehow, it was so difficult to explain the way they felt around one another——it tread on dangerous, but there was a part of Hoseok which told him not to _care_. And it's the worst of the worst because he knew his entire career rode on something as foolish as this.

Everything he'd worked for all of his life could easily go down the drain if he messed up. And it was the same for Kihyun——feelings were never a forte for the smaller man. He found himself repulsed by such things, but there was something about that captivating factor with Hoseok which seemed to make it feel so _comfortable_ and _natural_ to have his heart foolishly flutter a little when Hoseok pulled him into the inside of the sidewalk and flashed him a small smile.

It didn’t mean that he accepted the stupid, foolish way his heart and mind acted around the older man——he brushed it off as a factor of Hoseok being the only person to spend so much time with him, aside from Minhyuk. Something about having Minhyuk around him for so long happened to promise a small part of his mind that _yes_ , some things really _can_ last forever.

Flirtatious, but questionable——their relationship had developed to that state. They don’t do anything, but there’s the lingering of _something_ in the air between them. Neither of them can put a name on what it is, but there isn’t a _need_ to put a name to it, either. It’s simply what they feel——plain and simple; though _what_ they feel is a little more than complex.

They’ve never talked about it, either. Never really felt the need to do it. So, silently, Kihyun’s eyes met with Hoseok’s and his breath stopped somewhere in the back of his throat.

“Stay the night with me,” Hoseok whispered, the traces of a small smile on his lips and Kihyun pushed at the older man’s chest, brows furrowing in disdain at the suggestion.

Kihyun frowned and shook his head, “Hyungwon is going to come back and it’s going to be weird. I can’t stay here; my room is next door and I’m not going to leave Minhyuk alone, Hoseok.”

The blond’s arms tightened around Kihyun and he murmured into the younger man’s hair, “I’ll have a good night’s sleep when you’re here.”

“Stop being so gross,” Kihyun scolded, “That’s not true.”

Pouting at the younger man, Hoseok shifted to pull him a little closer, “It’s already eleven o’clock; isn’t Minhyuk already asleep? Wouldn’t you disturb him if you went back?”

“Hoseok,” the smaller man complained, though he made no attempt at pushing the other man away from him, “Minhyuk doesn’t sleep at this time. You’re terrible at being convincing. You need to let me go.”

It’s only when the sound of the doorknob jolting outside disturbs them——signifying Hyungwon’s anticipated return to the hotel room——that Hoseok actually follows Kihyun’s instructions to let him go. With a frown, the blond relented and pulled his arms away from Kihyun with a soft sigh——the tone lingering in the air with the obvious disappointment.

"Goodnight," the blond mumbled, sounding a little dejected. The younger tried to brush off the uneasy feeling in his mind which found itself so strongly associated with the tone of Hoseok's voice.

Kihyun slipped off of the bed and flashed Hyungwon a small smile as he left the room with his laptop in his hands. The taller man stepped out of the doorway to allow Kihyun exit, not saying anything but giving him a nod——there was a light in his eyes and the older man merely assumed that the meeting with Minhyuk had gone relatively well.

But, assumptions are assumptions and they're not always accurate. Kihyun didn't know Hyungwon well enough to make a judgement on the way his expression moulded.

And when he gets back to his hotel room, Minhyuk is laying back on the pillows and tapping away at his cell phone. From his angle, he can't see what the dark haired man is doing, but the atmosphere in the room is lighter and he knows that something _good_ has happened. He’d known Minhyuk long enough to be able to tell.

“Talk with Hyungwon go well?” he asked, as he turned to shut the door of the hotel room and lock it.

Minhyuk laughed from where he sat and he arched an eyebrow, the light from his phone illuminating his features, “I guess you could say that. I didn’t think you’d just tell him where I was, though.”

Kihyun shrugged and flashed a smile at his partner, “He sounded really desperate to find you, so I took pity on the kid.”

“Or is it because you wanted some time alone with Hoseok?”

Freezing, Kihyun laughed, “What are you talking about?”

“Exactly what I said,” Minhyuk answered, tone lilting with that _knowing_ sound that he always seemed to do when he wanted to weed information out of the younger man. Even in the darkness, Kihyun could make out the traces of a smirk on Minhyuk’s lips, as if he couldn’t _hear_ it. “You’ve been getting a lot closer to him, lately, Kihyunnie.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Sorry, _Kihyunnie_ ," Minhyuk mocked, a wicked smile on his lips. Kihyun grabbed one of the pillows on the bed and threw it at his partner and Minhyuk barked out a laugh. "But, hey——when you're an official thing, know that I'm always down for a threesome. He's pretty hot, y’know?”

Another pillow became a dangerous projectile in the direction of the black haired man.

Kihyun hoped the darkness his the flush on his cheeks. The light haired man fell onto the bed, burying his face into the pillows, “Oh, shut up and go to sleep, Minhyuk. We’re not going to become a thing, and I’m _never_ going to invite you into a threesome.”

An absent hum left Minhyuk’s lips as he reached over to turn off the lights for the younger man.

“Okay, what about an orgy? Add Hyungwon?”

_“Minhyuk, please.”_

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

****

Morning doesn't come for a long time when Hoseok laid back in his bed; cold and alone. It isn't as upsetting as it probably should be. He'd just been outright rejected——he brushed it off with a laugh, and it isn't until the clock struck midnight that Hyungwon shifted in his bed and turned to look at him with curious eyes in the middle of the darkness.

"You should try and stay still if you're not going to sleep, you know?" the younger officer murmured. "It's kind of really distracting to hear you continuously shifting, when I'm trying to sleep, Hoseok."

The blond curled up further into his sheets and brought the covers over his head as if trying to ignore the younger man's words. It doesn't work very well, and he only continues to stare as if he could burn holes into the blanket, "Sorry."

“What are you thinking about, now?” Hyungwon asked, ignoring the apology completely. With a soft sigh, Hoseok appeared from the mess of soft, fluffy blanket and frowned.

“You really don’t want to know,” he replied.

The other officer furrowed his brows and reached over to the nightstand to flick on the light between them; the light flooded the room——dim, but still as painful to eyes which had grown used to the darkness.

“I’m sure that it wouldn’t hurt to tell me,” Hyungwon told him, “Maybe, it’ll help get your mind off of things and you’ll fall asleep. And then I can, too.”

“I don’t know if I want to talk about it, Hyungwon,” Hoseok told him, tone wistfully lilting into insecurity. “It just... it’s one of those things that if you talk about it, it suddenly just feels too real and everything just... falls apart. I don’t want that to happen.” His voice was tense as he continued to speak.

The brunet seemed to sense the clear disdain at the idea of expanding on his thoughts, and he clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, giving up on asking. Hoseok wouldn’t know why the younger gave up so quickly, but seeing as though he’d upset Minhyuk not too long ago with the continuous questioning, Hyungwon had learned to give up when people clearly didn’t want to speak about it.

"Please, try and get some sleep when you're done thinking, then, Officer Shin," Hyungwon concluded their conversation with a soft sigh as if Hoseok were hopeless.

In the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but think that, maybe, he really was hopeless.

Within the past few days, he’d grown a tighter connection with Kihyun and he wasn’t sure what he was to label them. A target and an officer, _of course_ ; but, it almost felt as if there was something more to them at this point. Saying it aloud might make it seem too _real_ and then they'd be ruined if Hoseok couldn't grasp his own thoughts and separate right from wrong; his wants from his needs.

Flirting with Kihyun happened to be a method of wheedling information out of the younger man, but out of everyone whom Shin Hoseok _has_ flirted with, Kihyun was the only one to respond so well. As if he was made for shutting Hoseok down with cheeky smiles and bright eyes. _It’s cute._

It made him want to hold the younger man in his arms. For all the wrong reasons, when he reminded himself of his profession. His potential legacy.

And it was foolish of him to even think about the possibilities, but there was _such_ a temptation to reach out and grab what he wanted. He’d always been someone who was able to have everything and anything he’d wanted. He grew up in a family which reassured him that he could have anything. Maybe, Kihyun wasn’t included in that _everything_. But, maybe, that was because Hoseok wasn't quite sure what he wanted from Kihyun, to begin with.

He wasn't quite used to the entire idea of _you can’t always get what you want._

Falling asleep was hard when the thoughts weighed heavily on his mind and he couldn’t even begin to pinpoint the exact second that all of this started going downhill. All he knew was that he couldn’t let anyone else find out about the way this seemed to play out beyond his control.

Messing up his blond locks with a sigh and a frustrated groan, he prayed that he wasn’t waking Hyungwon up with all the sounds he was making, amidst his thoughts and annoyance at himself. _When did he lose all of his self-control_ _, like this?_ Hyungwon would be disappointed in him if he ever let it slip to the younger man that he was feeling all sorts of stupid emotions for the thief.

A special kind of _softness_. A _weakness_ , even.

_Something._

He wanted something with Kihyun, but he wasn’t quite sure what it was. He couldn’t find himself understanding the way the younger man seemed to grasp his attention and pull him away from everything he wanted to firmly believe in. That captivating factor the thief held in the first time they’d met only seemed to increase exponentially as they got to know one another.

He wanted to know everything about Yoo Kihyun, suddenly, and not only for the purpose of his job. Not only for the purpose of tracking down the notorious thieves who haven’t been caught in the act since their early days as a duo.

Something in the back of his mind, despite not knowing very much about the younger man at all, pleaded him to _protect_ the young man, because there was a light in his eyes which seemed like he’d gone through too much for someone at his age. Something which begged for a pity that never came. Something which seemed to ask for _sympathy_ , from someone, _anyone_.

It might have been his imagination, but the blond never took himself for someone who had a mind filled with vast fantasies. He wasn’t sure what to do with himself and the way he felt about the younger man, but there was a glistening sliver of hope in his heart which prayed that he would work with his instinct rather than his rationale.

And it would be stupid, _so stupid_ , to fall in love on the job.

And Hoseok swore he hasn’t.

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

****

The next morning had Hyungwon and Minhyuk sitting together for breakfast. Kihyun had left the hotel earlier in the morning to buy a new pack of cigarettes and he had yet to come back. Rising without his partner in the room was strange, so Minhyuk had visited Hyungwon’s room and asked if he’d eaten yet.

So, over breakfast, they conversed. Hyungwon’s gentle eyes scanned his expression as if afraid to ask, at first; cautious of his own words after the last time he’d risked screwing up their entire friendship. Overnight, there was a change of heart——it was the best way to put it.

“Have you ever considered starting your own family?” came the soft inquiry, when Hyungwon finally gathered his courage to ask the question lingering on his mind.

The black haired man pursed his lips and arched an interested eyebrow, “I have a family. Kihyun and I are as close as it gets to it.”

Hyungwon shook his head, “Not like that. I meant like... settling down and starting a family.”

“I’m a thief and my parents were terrible people who obsessed over money rather than their only son, what do you think?” Minhyuk furrowed his brows, a laugh of disbelief leaving his lips almost mockingly, “Did you spend all night thinking about what I told you about myself, Hyungwon?”

The younger man shook his head, again, looking down. When he raised his eyes again, though, his eyes were gentle——almost as if a simple gaze might shatter the older man, "Then, be better than them."

And Minhyuk can't help but feel a small pang to his chest——a slight, inexplicable prodding to the parts of his heart which dared not to show themselves. The younger man spoke naive words with such sincerity in his eyes, and a part of Minhyuk wanted to pity him for such _innocence_.

“Are you kidding me? Can you imagine me taking care of someone else? I’m not fit for a family.” Minhyuk’s eyes averted from Hyungwon’s when the prolonged gaze became enough for him to feel uncomfortable.

Hyungwon watched him carefully even when he tore his eyes away. The younger man’s voice was soft, “I don’t know what you’ve been through. I know your story, but there’s no way I could ever relate to the emotions that are attached to those events.

“I’m the opposite of you. My parents still coddle me and call me to ensure that I’m eating well and healthy. I can stand on my own feet, but they expect me to rely on them sometimes. We’ve lived completely different lives, so there’s no way that I could understand what you’ve felt. Those emotions are beyond me, but I can _try_ to understand. I’m not at as good at being _understanding_ as Hoseok is, but you make me want to try.”

Minhyuk raised an eyebrow as if asking for the point of the statement and Hyungwon continued, carefully. "I don't know what that means, it's just what I feel. I guess I did spend all night thinking about you, and I still am. You're _different_. You’re not the kind of person that society thinks all thieves are. I grew up so privileged and maybe that makes me naive, but if I am then what are you?” It’s completely rhetorical and it made the black haired man think, hesitation flitting through his mind. “I think you’re good. You care about people. You’re a good person, Minhyuk. I don’t say that about very many people and I’m not asking you to feel privileged to the fact that I think you’re good.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m just saying that maybe you’re too hard on yourself. You built yourself from the ground up, when you were pushed away by the people whom you thought cared and you found a home in someone who _does_ care.” Hyungwon added, swallowing as he grasped himself (disbelieving of the honesty in words he never thought he would say to a criminal), “You’re strong and brave, I guess. You’re the type of person who won’t stop working until every soul in the world is at peace and equal. That’s admirable, and no matter what you are, the world needs more people with hearts as golden as you.”

Minhyuk stared at the younger man in silence; evidently speechless.

“You think I’m a good person?”

Inhaling sharply, Hyungwon dropped his fork and reached across the table to place a hand on the older man’s. His mind reeled with a thousand thoughts wondering how he ever got to this stage with a man he was supposed to hunt down.

But, there’s more than meets the eye with people and Hyungwon knew better than to judge a book by its cover, or however the saying goes. So, with a lighter mind and a heavy heart, the brunet raised his eyes to meet with Minhyuk’s confused ones.

_“I do.”_

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

It’s harder than one would think to refrain from acting upon sheer emotions. Hoseok found that out the hard way, with a stressed mind and fruitless attempts of trying to keep his hands to himself——or at least, off of Kihyun. And again, they found themselves curled on Hoseok’s bed in the blond’s hotel room, side by side and a little too close to one another, studying the plans laid out on Kihyun’s laptop as per usual.

The plans themselves: they’re still senseless to Hoseok, especially when his mind found itself weighed down by last week’s continuous thoughts about Kihyun, after having spent an entire night thinking about their relationship and the _dangers_ associated with it. Likely, the lingering emotions he felt around Kihyun were a bit more senseless to him.

Still, even after months of being around someone like Kihyun, he’s still as captivating as he had been when they first met. And that factor made the younger man so much more dangerous. He’s good at what he does, but there wasn’t a sign that Kihyun knew what he was doing to Hoseok’s mind. Yet, that only seemed to make him more enchanting.

His eyes found themselves set on the younger man’s lips as Kihyun continued to explain the the details of their potential movements through the museum, once their plans were in action. Truthfully, if he were in his right mind, the blond should have kept his ears open and let the plan sink into his mind, because it would prove helpful sometime in the future when they found everything they needed for a proper arrest of the thieves. 

Yet, after stressful nights of worrying over the butterflies in his stomach when he spent too much time with Kihyun and the small, endearing smiles he caught himself sporting whenever the younger man did something, acting upon his sudden spur of emotions would be the absolute stupidest thing to do.

But, his eyes and mind found themselves more enchanted by the way Kihyun’s lips curled at the corners of his mouth when he enunciated certain words with amusement in his eyes. There was a unique pout of Kihyun’s lips after some of his words and the blond officer found himself staring a little too long.

Resistance finds itself futile and Hoseok exhales softly, looking over at the younger man and placing a gentle hand on his thigh, heart hammering in his chest and mind spinning with thoughts.

Kihyun looked up, halting speech with curious eyes, “What are you looking at me like that for?”

“Can I kiss you?”

The light brown haired man gaped at him, as if surprised beyond his own comprehension at the words which left Hoseok’s lips. Suddenly, the panic raced through the officer’s mind, once what he had said finally registered in his mind. Hoseok swore under his breath and looked away after a tense beat of silence. Kihyun blinked rapidly when the older man looked away, before he reached out to place his hand over the hand rested on his thigh.

“You can...” he replied, quietly. “If you want to, you can.”

Hoseok's eyes raised to Kihyun's, suddenly surprised at the acceptance as if he hadn't been expecting the smaller man to agree to such a strange request.

But, his body moves on its own and his hands gently cradled the younger man’s cheek as he turned to face him.

Visibly, Kihyun held his breath as Hoseok leaned in, eyes fluttering shut. The light haired man tensed, fingers clutching onto the sheets on either side of him and his eyes squeezed shut, awkwardly. As Hoseok leaned closer to him, he could feel the blond's lips nearing his and his hot breath against his lips.

Suddenly, Hoseok stopped.

“We’ve done this before, relax,” Hoseok whispered, just barely an inch away from Kihyun’s lips. It’s oddly nerve-wracking for the younger man, and he doesn’t really know why.

Nodding, but still obviously tense, Kihyun cracked open an eye to peer at Hoseok’s expression, “Not like this.”

“There’s nothing different,” Hoseok answered, tone soft and soothing as he coaxed the younger into a more relaxed state, “I’m just kissing you.” The same part of him that had been bold enough to speak the question left a gentle press to Kihyun’s lips, “Like that.”

Surprise crossed the smaller man’s expression, obviously much more relaxed and now more amused than anything. His eyes nearly twinkled under the dim light and he bit back the slight smile on his lips, “Just like that?” His tone was teasing.

Studying Kihyun's visage for a quiet moment, lips tingling from the initial press of their lips together, Hoseok shook his head. Mischief danced through his eyes as if Kihyun were the source of such behaviour.

“More like this,” Hoseok amended, leaning back in without a warning and pressing their lips together firmly.

Kihyun didn’t need the warning, it seemed.

The smaller man leaned backwards as their lips met and he pulled the blond with him, arms wrapping carefully around his neck and moulding their lips together slowly. Kihyun tasted of cigarettes and something distinctively sweet; Hoseok could feel his head spinning. There was something unmistakably chilling and captivating about the way the younger man's tongue curled suggestively against his own. There was just something about Kihyun which left him dazed after anything and everything.

Hoseok groaned quietly into the kiss and they parted with hazy eyes and breathless gasps, minutes later.

“I’ve wanted to do that for a while,” Hoseok admitted, quietly, when he finally caught his breath and found Kihyun’s curious eyes on him; lips rubbed red. His eyes lingered.

Pushing Hoseok off of himself and rolling onto his side and resting his head against the blond’s broad chest, Kihyun cracked a small smile, “Why didn’t you?”

“Thought you’d say no.”

“Can’t handle rejection?” Kihyun asked, playfully. Hoseok hummed quietly, an arm coming to rest around his waist. The motion was almost protective.

“Not really,” he replied, honestly.

For a moment, they lay in a comfortable silence, unsure of what to say to the other and unsure of if their planning for the day was over. Through his mind, Hoseok let a thousand questions run across his mind and he shut his eyes, when Kihyun shifted slightly against his chest. And then, there’s a reminder of something he’d wondered about the younger man for weeks——since they had been seated with one another on the plane. 

The curiosity gets the better of him again, and he prayed that he'd get an answer if he asked. Still, he wasn't sure of how Kihyun would react to certain things, and he supposed that he didn't know the younger man well enough yet. Or at least, not as well as the usual victims whom he'd been instructed to investigate.

And he was hoping that _if_ Kihyun answered him that some of his other questions would be answered along with the stories——but, a part of his mind couldn’t help but wonder if all of this was spurred on by an urge for personal gain. The urge of wanting to know Kihyun a little better; the need to assure himself that getting to know a thief this well wasn’t a crime.

“Kihyun,” Hoseok called, softly. The younger man hummed in response. “Can I ask you a question?”

“You just did.”

“Another two?” Hoseok asked, chuckling softly. The sound rumbled across his chest and Kihyun squirmed at the sudden vibration against his ear, but he nodded with a small smile——laughing at his own joke. “Why did you choose a life like this?”

Shifting in his position again and turning to look at the blond, Kihyun pursed his lips and absently played with the rings on his fingers, resisting the urge to sit up and go for a smoke, instead of answering the question. Realistically, in his mind, there was nothing wrong with Hoseok learning more about him and knowing the story of his entire existence as what he was now, but the thought of his past always managed to strike a nerve in the back of his mind. _Discomfort_ for the most part and a sliver of sadness, somewhere in the depths of his heart.

“Why did I _choose_ a life like this?” Kihyun repeated, eyes fluttering open as he stared up at the ceiling. “I had nothing to lose, Hoseok. Nothing at all. It just played out like that——one hand offered me continuing on a path where I already lost everything I loved and the other promised that I could have gained anything and everything I’ve ever wanted. Tell me, which hand would you take, if you were in that position?”

Kihyun didn’t wait for his response, “Of course the latter, right? That’s what Minhyuk offered me, when my life was in shambles and we met for the first time. He promised that my life would change completely, and whether for better or for worse, I didn’t want to continue living in a life where I had nothing left. That wasn’t living; I was just wasting away my life.” A short pause. “But, look at me, now. Look at where I am, now.” 

There was a sincerity in the smaller man’s eyes and Hoseok couldn’t put a finger on what it meant. It was the first time he ever saw such a glow in Kihyun’s eyes. In response to the silence, however, Kihyun continued his story, after turning his body so that he faced Hoseok, despite laying on his chest.

“I grew up in a family that loved me, you know?” Kihyun started, “They would have done anything for me. I was their only son. That’s something that Minhyuk and I share in common, except we lost our families in such _different_ circumstances. He chose to let them go, when they didn’t want him anymore... and I lost them without a choice.”

His eyes were suddenly downcast with a sadness that Hoseok’s heart ached at seeing. “They would probably be disappointed in me, if they saw me now, even though somehow, I found a way from a life like _that_ to a life like _this_. All we ever wanted was happiness and to have enough money to just live comfortably; that’s what dad always said, at least.” Another pause. “You know, I’m there now. I’m happy and I make more than enough money to live comfortably, but the ways that I got here are morally questionable.”

“But, at the same time,” Kihyun added, his eyes falling shut for a brief moment as he tried to shake off the sudden buildup of emotions in the back of his throat, “Dead people can’t have opinions, right?”

Hoseok fell silent and stared into the younger man’s eyes, when Kihyun finally opened them again, “But, you didn’t ask for my life story, either so I don’t know why I felt compelled to tell you about it all. You probably didn’t need to hear all of that.”

“No,” Hoseok objected, quickly. “I’m... I’m glad you told me.”

Kihyun looked at him with surprised eyes and he exhaled softly, before the blond interrupted him with a soft voice, “... how did they pass away? Do you mind telling me? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“A car accident,” Kihyun replied, promptly. “I was seventeen and I wasn’t interested in going out with them for the night, so I stayed home and did my work. They said they’d be home in a couple hours, but a couple hours later, I got a phone call from the hospital... it was too late when I got there.”

“I’m sorry,” Hoseok breathed, his fingers coming to lace with the younger man’s. Kihyun shook his head.

“Don’t be,” he told him. “It’s been over eight years. I’ve gone this long without them; I don’t need to get emotional every time I think about their death. I should know that nothing ever really lasts if you love them, anyway.”

“That’s not true.”

"Yes, it is," Kihyun replied. "For the most part, it is. There are so few exceptions that it isn't even worth mentioning, so please, don't argue with me on something like this. You know I'm right."

With a lingering stare to the younger man and a pregnant silence, Hoseok inhaled sharply, set on refusal but the brunet cut him off with a quiet laugh.

“It’s a good life, nonetheless,” Kihyun remarked. Hoseok arched an eyebrow.

“A good life, huh?” he repeated. The smaller man shifted against his chest again and flashed a small smile.

“Yeah,” he replied, “There’s _excitement_ in this life. Haven’t you ever felt the adrenaline in running away from puppets of the government?”

It took Hoseok a moment to register the younger man’s words——a second too long for someone who was playing the role of a thief to figure out what a government puppet was. He played it off as a moment too long of staring into Kihyun’s eyes, and he closed them for a brief moment with a soft exhale.

“I think _puppet_ is a little bit of a harsh word,” he told the younger and Kihyun laughed, visibly shaking; the corners of his eyes crinkling a little and the sound left his lips in sheer mirth. It’s a nice sound.

“Oh, do you respect them?” Kihyun asked, tone strangely taunting. “That’s _cute_.”

Hoseok found himself speechless and he pushed the younger man, unsure of what to say and hoping that he could play it off as faux anger in the way Kihyun was teasing him.

"Do you not?" Hoseok returned, careful with his words, in fear of accidentally exposing himself after having just learned new things about the younger man. Kihyun raised an eyebrow as if asking him for a valid reason why he should respect the officers who kept justice in the world. He swallowed his pride and managed a laugh——sounding a lot more natural than he'd ever give himself the credit for, "They never seem to give up on the game of cat and mouse that's associated with everything we do. I think that's pretty worthy of admiration. They don't know when to give up; they don't get tired of it, huh?"

Kihyun’s eyes twinkled when he laughed, this time, and Hoseok held his breath when he felt his heart jump at the sight. Slowly, it was getting so much more dangerous to just breathe the same air as Yoo Kihyun. The blond let his eyes flutter shut.

“I guess you’re right,” the younger man answered, “I’ll give you that.”

Fixing Kihyun with a quiet gaze, Hoseok pursed his lips and ran his fingers through his own hair, free hand absently playing with Kihyun’s fingers, “And... do you ever get tired of a life like this?”

The smaller man chuckled at him and shook his head.

"Let me tell you something that I don't think you realize, even though we lead similar lives, Hoseok——we're as strong as a house of cards. Stronger than you think, but a single blow knocks us down. We were never stable, to begin with; anything can break us down, and we're always on our feet and waiting for that moment. But, what's stopping us from rebuilding ourselves on the same foundation we once broke down on? _Nothing_.”

Lowering his eyes and letting them meet with Kihyun’s, the other man flashed him a serene smile before arching an eyebrow, as if questionable the relatability of his words. Hoseok processed it slowly.

“Tell me if there’s any boredom in a life like that——there’s more thrill in it than a rollercoaster.”

He made to speak but faltered at the last moment. He couldn't argue otherwise.

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

“Do you ever think that something is a little too good to be true?” Minhyuk asked, leaning back against Kihyun and letting the younger man card absent fingers through his hair. Kihyun pursed his lips and arched a brow at the inquiry.

“I do,” he replied, “What’s got you suddenly thinking about this?”

The black haired man hummed softly and played with the blades of grass beneath his fingers. They were sitting outside at a park close to their hotel, underneath a tree——Kihyun’s back pressed against the trunk of the tree and Minhyuk against his lap. The summer air was humid around them, but there was a gentle breeze whistling by.

The sun blazed a bright light into their eyes, but Kihyun had carefully placed his cap over Minhyuk’s hair to prevent his eyes from becoming damaged——simply because the sunlight directed itself to the older man, more. A cigarette found itself between the younger man’s lips as his fingers ran through Minhyuk’s hair, underneath the cap, careful to not spill the burning ashes onto his partner’s visage.

“Hyungwon,” Minhyuk answered, simply. Kihyun’s fingers paused and he furrowed his brows a little, in confusion.

“Hyungwon? What about him?” he asked, carefully with his teeth clenching down onto the cigarette to prevent it from falling out of his mouth.

Minhyuk didn’t answer him directly, “How long did it take for you to trust me, Hyun?”

The lighter haired man blinked, hesitating for a brief moment to flash an amused smile at the usage of an unfamiliar nickname. His fingers found themselves to his mouth and he pulled the cigarette away to speak, "Not very long. But, I also had every reason not to trust you. A sketchy hookup and waking up to you trying to steal my wallet? Not exactly the most trustworthy impression, but it didn't take you very long to prove your trustworthiness when you didn't murder me as soon as we met up for the second time. Why do you ask after all this time?"

Minhyuk ignored the question, again. “Was that a too good to be true moment for you?”

“Meeting you, or the offer to change my life?”

“Both,” Minhyuk said.

"Yeah——watching your life go to shambles and then seeing a stranger waltz into your life and promise you that everything would get better if you took his hand and trusted him?" Kihyun replied, "That's like Cinderella and her fairy godmother."

“Are you comparing me to a magical old lady?”

“... That wasn’t my intention, but yes, I am.”

Minhyuk chuckled and he looked up at Kihyun, "It's just... do you remember when you told me that you couldn't love me, no matter how much I loved you because you were afraid of losing me?"

Kihyun paused, taking a drag from his cigarette and looking up to the leaves adorning the branches of the tree above them——taking his time to admire the way sunlight peeked through the sparse spaces between the leaves as he exhaled a puff of smoke and watched as it dispersed. He nodded.

"I do," he replied. "I was drunk and you thought I didn't know what I was talking about until I told you that you were too important to me to lose to something as stupid as _love_. You cried. That was the first time I ever saw you cry.”

It was the one and only time in the six years that they knew one another that Kihyun saw someone as bright as Minhyuk break down into tears——surprisingly, because of him. He hadn’t spared any feelings when he told the older man that love would be impossible between the two of them. But, Minhyuk had seemed so strong and it hadn’t occurred to him that someone could have been so high strung on holding back their emotions that his words could have been such a trigger for the waterworks.

And the following years passed without either of them finding themselves in tears. Kihyun supposed that things came and went while teaching lessons about forever, or lack thereof, and the ridiculous idea of such. Even the tears never stayed. Minhyuk would call him cynical if he voiced his opinion, but he looked at the idea of something lasting an eternity with jaded eyes. Too many times he’d been disappointed by the hope of something lasting. To a point that if it wasn’t staying with Minhyuk, then he saw absolutely no point in even bothering with trying——simply because out of everything he’d obtained since his life changed completely, there was nothing more valuable to him than the friendship he shared with Lee Minhyuk.

Voicing it aloud would only trigger a part of his mind to believe that they would then have limited time alongside one another. The entire concept seemed contradictory in his mind, but he refrained from thinking about it too much; simply set on voicing the belief that the idea of eternity didn’t exist.

But the topic of their conversation had Kihyun’s head reeling with a plethora of thoughts. To an absent part of Kihyun’s mind, he found himself amazed that such memories didn’t hurt the older man anymore——a first love; he’d always taken the word of others that they were supposed to hurt for life——even if it was just as a dull presence in the depths of the mind. To another part of his mind, he wasn’t at all surprised, because he knew Minhyuk as someone so _strong_.

Someone who wouldn’t let something so foolish——something like _emotions_ ——knock him off his balance for too long.

To Kihyun, Minhyuk was everything in the definition of strong. In his eyes, Minhyuk was someone who could probably walk through Hell with his head held high in confidence and the brightest smile on his lips.

“You looked at me with such _cold_ eyes,” Minhyuk laughed, softly.  “How could I not have cried? I was twenty, foolish and completely new to the entire idea of loving with someone. You shot that down without even blinking, and you were _drunk._ I think I had every reason to start crying, especially since we were so _awkward_ for months after that and I took entirely too long to get over someone like you.”

“What do you mean _someone like me?_ Is that an insult? If it isn’t, I still take offense to it.” Kihyun made a face at the older man and Minhyuk swatted at him with a laugh and a good-natured roll of his eyes. “We spent almost every waking minute together,” Kihyun replied, “It would be a miracle if you managed to get over me, quickly. It’s like trying to quit smoking and being offered a cigarette, every single time you look up. Pretty damn impossible, if I do say so myself.”

Minhyuk raised an eyebrow, “You’re speaking in analogies. That’s new.”

“Haven’t I always done that?”

“Not to this extent,” Minhyuk replied, “You’re answering almost every single one of my questions with analogies.”

Kihyun laughed, shaking his head and bringing his cigarette back to his lips, “It must be because of Hoseok; I spoke to him the other day... we had a really intimate discussion about my past,” he shrugged, despite the smile dancing across his lips, “I explained almost everything in analogies. I do that a lot when I’m trying to explain the plans to him, too. He’s an idiot.”

“Do you trust him?” Minhyuk asked, suddenly.

Kihyun halted his laughter and he looked down at the black haired man, who shut his eyes and readjusted the cap on his head. Chewing on his lower lip, Kihyun tilted his head with the consideration of the idea——it had been days since he had a proper moment alone with Minhyuk, but he hadn’t noticed, until now, that there wasn’t that lingering discomfort whenever the older man wasn’t around for too long.

“I don’t know,” Kihyun answered, honestly. “How do you know when you trust someone?”

Minhyuk opened his eyes again and smiled at the younger man, “You’re swaying. I think you do. Usually, if I were to ask you that, you’d tell me that you don’t trust anyone but me.”

“Stop being so full of yourself,” Kihyun groaned, unceremoniously blowing a mouthful of smoke into the older man’s face.

Despite his offhanded remark, he knew it was true, but admitting it to himself was a step that he wasn’t willing to take, just yet. With Hoseok, trust was a strong, potential factor. They’d spent so much time together and after explaining all the ins and outs of a huge project to the older man, there was little he could do to deny the entire idea of _trusting him._

But, there was a moment of hesitation before Kihyun searched Minhyuk’s eyes and crushed the cigarette in the grass beside him.

“Is it wrong to trust him?” he asked, softly.

Rarely, the younger man would doubt himself and rely on Minhyuk for opinions, but in the moment, he found himself lost in his thoughts and unsure of what to believe. His conscious pushed him away from admitting that he trusted someone whom he was so against getting to know but, at the same time, spending hours on end alongside the blond convinced his heart otherwise.

“It’s not, Hyun,” Minhyuk shook his head, raising dark irises to meet with Kihyun’s, their fingers absently lacing together. It’s undoubtedly reassuring. “It’s not.”

“But, what makes you so certain?” Kihyun asked, fingers itching for another cigarette despite having just extinguished his dying flame. “What makes him so trustworthy? I can’t find a reason to convince myself that it’s okay to trust him.”

Minhyuk smiled at him, and it’s the smile of a guardian who was chiding a small child for asking silly questions.

“He’s Hyungwon’s partner,” Minhyuk replied simply. “And I trust Hyungwon. There’s something about the both of them that feels right to believe in, Kihyun. I saw that in you, too.”

He looked at Kihyun, but his eyes seemed to be lacking the focus——almost as if he were daydreaming as he was speaking. But, there was a glimmer in Minhyuk’s eyes after his words, and Kihyun recognized that look.

He recognized it with his veins burning with a sudden sense of alarm and disbelief that he hadn’t realized it before.

The way Minhyuk spoke fondly of Hyungwon; the way Minhyuk's eyes seemed to brighten whenever the younger man was around; the way that Minhyuk's demeanour around the younger man, just briefly after the night they'd spent on the bridge, together. The signs were all there, and Kihyun wasn't sure if Minhyuk himself realized it.

But, Kihyun should have picked up on it a lot sooner.

_It’s the way he looked at Kihyun, seven months after they met, just before he’d fallen in love._

 


	3. third.

A solid week passes without a single word about Minhyuk's obvious feelings for Hyungwon before Kihyun cracked.

There was something that bothered him; the notion of Minhyuk being in love with someone with someone who wasn’t him. It’s not _jealousy_ , it’s concern. Or at least, that’s what he tried to convince himself——he’s not really sure what it is and searching through the depths of his heart and mind proved to be ineffective.

What he knows, though, is that it's the entire idea of losing his best friend to someone else——because, when Minhyuk was in love with him, at the very least, he kept him to himself, even with the assurance that he wouldn't ever fall in love with Minhyuk. Kihyun has never been quite the type to demand attention——he never really _needed_ it——but, it proved to be a completely different story with Minhyuk.

With Minhyuk, everything was different. In all ways good.

So, while sprawled across Hoseok's sheets with his face buried into the older man's pillows, Kihyun huffed and rolled his eyes at everything spoken, until the blond gave up with trying to hold a proper conversation with him and settled with a soft sigh. Hoseok didn't speak for a moment; his eyes scanned the younger man as if trying to decode the light-haired man's mind on his own, before raising any questions.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, finally.

Kihyun crossed his arms over his chest and huffed, eyes flickering over to where Hyungwon’s empty bed was. “Minhyuk keeps ignoring me in favour of Hyungwon. It’s like he’s in love with him, it’s so annoying.”

Hoseok barked out a burst of laughter, before covering his mouth and waving his hands in apology——as if saying that such a sound wasn’t _actually_ supposed to escape his lips. But, it did, and Kihyun fixed him with an irritated gaze. In a fruitless attempt to soothe the younger man’s anger, though, Hoseok crawled over to where Kihyun sat on the bed and wrapped his arms around him.

“What’s the annoying part? Minhyuk ignoring you, or Minhyuk being in love?” Hoseok asked, softly.

For a brief moment, Kihyun’s mind reeled as he thought about the older man’s words——simply because he wasn’t _sure_ what the aggravating factor of the entire situation was. He just knew it was unsettling to his mind.

“Probably the part where he’s likely in love,” Kihyun pursed his lips in disdain at the idea and rolled his eyes.

“What’s wrong with that?” Hoseok asked, burying his face into the younger man’s shoulder, briefly.

“You know how I feel about _romance_ ,” Kihyun replied, narrowing his eyes and turning his head, shrugging the blond off of him and letting their eyes meet for a moment. Hoseok’s eyes searched his for something, but tore his eyes away, when Kihyun raised an eyebrow at him in question.

“What of the love? You think so lowly of it,” Hoseok said, eyes raising to the ceiling for a moment as he pondered his own words, unsure of what the _right_ thing to say was. In the end, he settled on saying what was on his mind, rather than what was likely the better option——the option that spared feelings. “It makes me think that you’re someone who wouldn’t even give it a chance, even though it isn’t really a choice. You’d be the type to give up on affection before even trying, am I right?”

The look on Kihyun’s face darkened and it was all Hoseok needed to know that every breath of his words had been an accurate assumption, but the younger man gave him no vocal confirmation of the truth in his words.

And then there’s a moment of silence, before Kihyun opened his mouth to speak again; his voice quiet and somewhat unsure of himself, “I just don’t want him to get hurt, if anything. He’s a good person, and I know nothing about Hyungwon... I can’t protect someone who means the world to me, if I know nothing about what we’re up against.” 

Hoseok studied the younger man for a moment, brows furrowed——if Kihyun knew the dangers of the words leaving his lips, then he wouldn’t have been speaking them in the first place. There was a difference in the Kihyun that Hoseok was speaking to now, in comparison to the Kihyun whom he had met when Changkyun first introduced the thieves to them.

This Kihyun was less guarded——his walls lowered and his emotions bared to Hoseok’s eyes. It was an obvious sign of trust, when Kihyun curled up against him and whispered his concerns to the empty air between them, sometime long after the sun had gone down behind the horizon, and they didn’t really have very much of a reason to stay alongside one another because all their work became pointless to speak of for the night.

There was a wrenching feeling in his gut, when he thought of the moment that he _might_ just break that trust to a million pieces, scattered over the floor and impossible to recover.

“You speak of him like he’s an opponent,” Hoseok remarked, fingers absently carding through Kihyun’s hair, when the younger man rested his head on his chest and frowned, slightly.

Somehow, this had become protocol for them——hours of talking about potential plans and mapping out their backups, if anything were to happen and then suddenly, Kihyun was laying on his chest with his eyes threatening to flutter shut and they were talking about everything under the sun. Only once, he found himself learning so much more about the younger man, but that itself was the start of the trust he was trying to build with the younger.

And there's an absent part of his mind that wonders, when he looks into Kihyun's pretty eyes, if someone who swore their life to the law was meant to lie to others to grasp the knowledge they needed. And it makes him feel sick but he tears his mind away from the thought, when Kihyun's lips parted and he exhaled softly.

“I have no reason to believe that he’s not,” Kihyun sighed, shifting so that he rested comfortably on the blond’s chest.

The squirming had the blond pulling his hands out of the younger man’s hair and resting on either side of his own head, as he waited for him to get comfortable. Kihyun settled with his arms rested underneath his head and peering down at Hoseok’s visage, gently nudging the blond’s arms to wrap around his waist.

“And what if you take my word for it?” Hoseok asked, softly.

Kihyun laughed, tearing his eyes away from Hoseok for a quiet moment, “And tell me what reasons I have to trust you?”

Hoseok’s eyes twinkled with amusement and mischief, as one of his hands left Kihyun’s sides in favour of tracing the younger man’s cheek with gentle fingers, “Tell me what reasons you have not to.”

Deflating a little, Kihyun pouted——the blond found his heart skipping a beat at the sudden change in the smaller man’s attitude. He took a breath, but it’s Kihyun who spoke, “I asked you first.”

“And I chose to answer you with a question, Kihyun,” Hoseok replied, smiling lightly. The officer’s fingers tilted Kihyun’s face towards himself with a racing heart, before gently running across the smooth contours of Kihyun’s jaw. “What’s there to convince you to not to trust me? When we’re not planning illegal things, all I really do is stare at you and listen to you talk, while thinking about how much I want to kiss you, when you don’t shut up.”

“That sounds suspicious to me,” Kihyun breathed, eyes blowing a little wide in surprise at the confession, which seemed to fall from Hoseok’s lips a little too easily; tone betraying the look on his face.

It’s _endearing_. And Hoseok could hardly believe he said something like that so easily, yet it felt so _right_ to say it to Kihyun.

The brunet took a breath, slow and steady, before leaning in closer to the blond with his mind a spiralling mess of uncertainty to the unfamiliar ways that Hoseok made him feel with nothing but _words_.

And with their lips ghosting over one another, Kihyun whispered, “You should just kiss me, when you want to, though.”

Hoseok pulled him flush against himself.

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

****

Time spent with Hyungwon seemed to fly by without a second to spare. Minhyuk noted this with a frown on his face at the end of the night, when they had to leave one another in favour of returning to their respective rooms and retiring for the night. Kihyun fixed Minhyuk with dirty looks when he returned to their hotel room in the middle of the night, after leaving him alone for the entire day, but there was something that he felt around Hyungwon that was impossible to give up.

It was _familiar_ and undoubtedly a comfortable feeling, somewhere in his heart _._

It was hard to breathe when the younger man smiled, and there was a greed in his mind that made him want to be the only one to make Hyungwon smile like that. It hit him a while ago——the realization that there was something more _special_ about the way he felt around Hyungwon. Initially, it had just been a simple attraction to the younger man’s visage, but then somewhere along the way, he’d run into the revelation that Hyungwon’s guarded heart held so many _genuine_ feelings and he couldn’t help but feel enthralled by the wholesome heart of a _thief_.

To Minhyuk’s mind, it was a thought that after all the years he spent with Kihyun, there was finally a chance for him to meet someone who stole for similar reasons as himself——someone who had a heart overflowing with purity to an extent that it seemed naive. The description fit Hyungwon like a glove, except the younger man seemed to know to defend himself against the cruelty of society, despite appearing so _innocent_.

But, the danger of it existed in the fact that he knew exactly why such a thing felt so familiar to him. He'd noticed it promptly when he'd started spending more time with the younger man, since Kihyun was too busy with Hoseok to pay attention to him.

It felt exactly like what he’d fallen to, when he met Kihyun for the first time. There was a mysterious charm which seemed to shroud Hyungwon, and Minhyuk couldn’t ignore the voice in the back of his mind telling him to grasp onto that and learn more. In a sense, perhaps, he was a parallel to naive——whatever it was to know the consequences for every little thing that he did and still walk into it with his eyes wide open; in such sense, perhaps, the parallel was stupidity.

He didn't care, though, because so long and Hoseok and Kihyun were together and plotting things out, then he had as much time in the world as he wanted with Hyungwon. They spent every single day differently——some days, they walked the streets of New York and spoke about their lives; other days, they stayed at the hotel and explored every nook and cranny of the establishment.

Today, they spent their entire morning scouring the malls for something nice to purchase——Hyungwon’s studious eyes making sure that Minhyuk’s fingers didn’t swipe anything unnecessary until the black haired man smacked his hand and laughed at the suspicion, grinning and promising him that he only stole from his parents’ shopping centres. Quietly, as to not let the people surrounding them hear his words.

Now, they sat on the grass——Minhyuk sitting on Hyungwon’s jacket, which had been draped onto the ground to prevent stains from the grass and dirt, and Hyungwon’s head rested on his thighs.

They found themselves at peace, tonight. Minhyuk’s slender fingers carded through Hyungwon’s dark locks of hair and his eyes scanned the younger man’s features with curiosity about every soft curve and contour of his visage——how the minor imperfections had manifested onto his pretty face, and how he could still look infinitely flawless.

And perhaps, rose-coloured glasses made one look completely different, but Minhyuk swore that the world regarded Hyungwon with the same perfection he saw. It’s naivety——ignorance at best.

Maybe, he thinks, it’s the fact that the younger man had sought him out one night for the sole sake of making peace with their relationship. Maybe, he thinks, that it's the fact that the younger man learned his story that same night, because, through words and the way the moonlight had glistened against the water, a part of his guard had broken down. If that were true, then what was the validity in the way he felt for Hyungwon?

Thoughts would flood his mind, attacking him with relentless inquiries, but Minhyuk can’t find it in himself, in this fleeting moment, to care——isn’t really sure that he ever would care.

“Do you think we should head back to the hotel?” Hyungwon asked, eyes still closed and his tone laced with the threat of drowsiness.

Minhyuk shook his head, though the younger man couldn’t see him. Purposefully, when he answered, he tangled his fingers into the younger man’s hair and spoke in the most smothering tone he could muster (and he wouldn’t ever admit it to anyone, but it came so much easier when it was for Hyungwon).

“Let’s stay out for a bit longer. I’m sure they won’t miss us too much; not as much as I’d miss you, overnight.”

Hyungwon’s boisterous laugh only makes his heart flutter.

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

****

Come morning, Kihyun found himself still by Hoseok's side——night fell all too promptly, and when gentle kisses turned into something more, Hoseok proved himself to be so much more persuasive than Kihyun had initially taken him for. All it took was for Hoseok to coax him to stay and a turn of the blond's wrist to lock the door and ensure that Hyungwon wouldn't be returning to their room for the night because the younger man hardly ever took his keys with him when he needed to leave the hotel room. They'd fallen into the sheets for a casual hook-up, afterwards.

So, it feels all too familiar when he woke with the sun burning through his eyelids because they'd forgotten to shut the blinds before they fell asleep curled up against one another. It reminded him of the first night after they met——everything seemed to play out almost identically to that night, anyway.

Sleep still threatening to drag him back into a deep slumber, even when his eyes fluttered open, Kihyun found himself shifting closer to the blond and leaching him of his body’s warmth. Unfortunately for the smaller man, it seemed that Hoseok was already awake and his eyes flickered open to fix Kihyun with an amused smirk.

"What?" he asked, groggily——though, he wasn't sure he was ready to hear the answer when he just woke up. Hoseok had a talent of annoying him to no ends, and it was rather amazing. Just waking up did not happen to be a moment where he would appreciate the blond's antics.

“You want to cuddle with me,” Hoseok stated, the shit-eating smirk on his lips transforming into a wicked grin. Kihyun pulled the covers back over his exposed naked body and rolled his eyes, turning away from Hoseok.

“I don’t _do_ cuddling.”

“Liar,” Hoseok chuckled, wrapping his arms around Kihyun’s body and pulling him back to him——whenever the blond had woken up, he’d found the time to get dressed; the soft fabric of Hoseok’s shirt felt nice against his skin. “You cuddled with me before. For an entire fifteen minutes.”

Grumbling under his breath, Kihyun pulled the covers closer to his exposed body and rolled his eyes, again.

“That counts for nothing. I hate cuddling.”

"I beg to differ," Hoseok grinned, pressing his chin into the crook of Kihyun's neck and flashing an innocent smile at the younger man. Clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth and succumbing to a state of awake, Kihyun knew he wouldn't be falling back asleep when the blond had him reeled on a hook with teasing.

Still, he couldn’t resist taking the bait.

“I hate you,” Kihyun bit, gritting his teeth in an almost obvious sense of distaste. It doesn’t sound hateful at all, unfortunately, but it’s a joke.

He doesn't notice the flash of hurt on the blond's visage at his words——it's out of sight, but he feels the brief tensing of Hoseok's body against his, even with the older man's thin layer of clothing. His mind worked quickly at trying to decipher the meaning behind the slight but, before he can say anything about it, Hoseok spoke up; voice soft and breaking the silence as almost a gentle whisper in his ear, suddenly serious. Too serious for their atmosphere in the previous moment and too serious for their position of Hoseok wrapping strong arms around his naked body from behind, in bed.

“What will it take for you to love me?”

Freezing, Kihyun's eyes widened and he resisted the urge to shrug the blond off——preventing himself from overreacting if this was a joke. This was so different from when Minhyuk had confessed to him, but at the same time, it was all too similar. There was a rush of confused emotions in Kihyun's chest; building up as a knot and he had no idea where to place his feelings, or what to do with them. It's a blur——perhaps, that was the only similarity.

“What?” he managed to let the words slip from his lips with curiosity in his eyes, not daring to turn his head to look at the blond.

He felt the older man swallow hard——“You heard me.”

There was a distinctive pounding of his heartbeat in his ears and Kihyun opened his mouth, trying to speak. No words come to him. Dealing with emotions after they’d been spoken of was something Kihyun _lacked_ the ability to do. Minhyuk once told him that he was perfect for everything and anything that he did——that anyone would be jealous of everything he was made up of, aside from the fact that he was practically a robot with how closed off he was: too afraid to love, too afraid to try.

“Why would you want that?” Kihyun asked, voice unsure and almost trembling. As if Hoseok heard the tremor in his voice, the blond squeezed his arms a little tighter around the younger man’s body.

The response came as a quiet hum in his ear, before Hoseok shifted slightly and turned to regard Kihyun with serious eyes. There was a fondness in his eyes that he brunet couldn’t grasp an understanding of. If this were Minhyuk; if this were six years ago; Kihyun wouldn’t have hesitated turning cold eyes to the other man and laughing in his face at the inquiry, because Yoo Kihyun spared no love for anyone but himself——but now, maybe, everything was different _because_ it was Hoseok.

Kihyun couldn’t find it in himself to glare at the older man with pitying eyes——a part of his mind scolded him for it and called him _pitiful_. It was like accidentally tearing apart a barrier that you hadn't noticed and drowning everyone around you in the process of it all——that was exactly what it felt like when Hoseok stared into his eyes. Suddenly, hard to breathe and his mind swam with an almost suffocating confusion.

And Hoseok’s voice in response to his inquiry was so soft and gentle, as if afraid of breaking him——Kihyun felt sick to his stomach at the sound of the older man’s voice; it reminded him of the way people spoke to him when they saw him as _weak_. But, there was an underlying tone in the way the blond spoke that made his heart flutter a little (and that was a ridiculous sensation he’s never quite felt before).

“Why wouldn’t I?”

Pressing his lips together in a thin line, Kihyun kept his eyes forward, staring past Hoseok instead of into his eyes, as the older man looked directly at him; “Can you stop answering me with questions? I don’t need to be any more confused than I already am.”

Hoseok’s slender fingers reached out to trace his jaw and Kihyun tensed at the touch, eyes quickly shifting to the blond’s visage before inhaling sharply and turning his head, “What are you confused about, Kihyun?”

Biting his lower lip a little harder, the younger man curled his fingers into a fist and shifted his eyes to the side, suddenly insecure. He knew exactly why his heart was racing under the other man’s gentle ministrations, but there wasn’t a chance that he was going to admit it aloud——too many times he’d disappointed himself with believing in someone _staying_ after the words left delicate lips.

He couldn’t give anyone the satisfaction of knowing that they made his heart race and spun his mind onto levels where he could hardly control himself. To Kihyun, he’d always thought of it as ridiculous——pathetic, even——to be so head over heels for someone. Or maybe, the lack of trust was justified, but Kihyun had no way of really knowing.

The officer’s thumb brushed over the younger man’s plush lower lip and Kihyun felt the electric shocks down his spine from the touch. Already, Hoseok was making him feel unfavourable things——Kihyun simply couldn’t admit it to himself.

But, spending hours on end with one person who couldn’t keep their hands off of you; spending hours by their side and watching them treat you with the utmost care——how could he not feel a twinge of weakness in his heart for the older man?

“I don’t know,” Kihyun mumbled, averting his eyes away from Hoseok, suddenly unable to even try to keep the eye contact. “You’re making me feel things. I don’t know why you would _want_ someone like me to love you. Why couldn’t you just say that it was a joke and brush it off like you never said anything?”

Hoseok regarded him with silent eyes and there was a swirl of regret glowing somewhere in the depths of his eyes. Kihyun couldn’t even begin to wonder where the regret stemmed from, but a part of his mind screamed to him that he wouldn’t want to know——that he shouldn’t know. For his own sake, if anything.

"When have I ever been someone to keep something to myself?" Hoseok asked, softly. Kihyun's body refused to relax and he grit his teeth, avoiding the blond's eyes——irises darting around the spaciousness of the hotel room, but insistently ensuring that he wouldn't look the taller man in the eye. For surely, if he did, then he wouldn't be able to control what spilt from his lips.

The pounding of his heart beat rapidly against his chest, and the younger man couldn’t be any gladder that Hoseok was no longer close enough to him to be able to feel the way it hammered loudly. He wouldn’t be able to bluff and lie his way out of something like that, certainly.

“I don’t know you well enough to be the judge of that,” Kihyun managed to say.

Hoseok laughed, but it was the sound of a heartbroken man——and all too quickly, Kihyun was reminded of the time, six years prior, when he’d looked Minhyuk directly in the eyes and told him that there wasn’t a chance that he was ever going to fall in love with him. This time, unlike the past, the look on Hoseok’s face had his heart wrenching with a subtle pain.

“So, you’d call us a summer fling and throw me away, when we’re done all of this?” Hoseok asked.

The tone was dejected and almost accusing. It tore the younger man apart. He couldn’t grasp the meaning of the words and he held his breath as Hoseok’s fingers dropped away from his face.

And the words Hoseok spoke had his mind reeling with doubts and insecurities. He couldn’t ever do such a thing to the relationship they shared, whatever it was. There was a special feeling associated with being around the older man——something similar to the way he felt around Lee Minhyuk, but a thousand leagues away from that sensation, all at the same time.

Despite the true meaning behind whatever they were and whatever they did, Kihyun’s barely existent morals wouldn’t let him push away the endless hours they spent by one another’s sides, and the sweeter nights which they’d fallen side by side into bed, call it nothing and walk away. He couldn’t do that to Hoseok.

But, the chaotic screaming from his mind, warning him of an imminent danger; it shouted volumes and Kihyun threw the covers to the side, standing up from the bed and shaking his head.

Hoseok sat quietly on the bed and watched as he moved with a silent horror painted across his visage and Kihyun tried to keep his eyes away from Hoseok; he couldn't manage to look the source of his guilt in the face. It grasped onto him and threatened to swallow him alive if he parted his lips and let the wrong words fall from them.

So, as he pulled his once discarded shirt over his body and tugged his jeans back on, Kihyun hardly bothered with fixing his clothes and making himself presentable, before rushing out of the room; struggling with the locked door, before Hoseok watched his retreating back vanish into the hallway of the hotel.

With a strangely aching heart, Kihyun swore that the guilt eating him alive was only the fear of having Minhyuk look at him with disappointed eyes for having ruined a perfect working relationship.

_And nothing else._

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

****

“Minhyuk, open the door, _please_.” Kihyun rapped his knuckles desperately against the door of his own hotel room. It was locked and he clenched his fists in despair as he tried to get the attention of Minhyuk, who _hopefully_ was in the room. He should have taken his key when he left the hotel room, the previous night, but he’d forgotten all about it.

There was a shuffling sound from the other side of the door and Kihyun prayed that Minhyuk would heed his desperation and not torment him for much longer than he really had to. Walking out of Hoseok’s hotel room without a word dragged his heart to the practical depths of Hell frozen over——or that’s what it felt like: _heavy and cold_.

The jostling of the doorknob had him feeling entirely too hopeful and when the door opened, Kihyun nearly threw himself into the room——the fear of the potential of Hoseok stepping out of his room and finding him still standing in the hallway practically haunting him. He couldn’t face the older man after what he’d just done.

Minhyuk’s eyes widened when Kihyun quickly shut the door behind himself and brushed past the black haired man, making a beeline for his bed and falling onto it with a heavy breath.

“Kihyun?” Minhyuk called, turning to follow after his partner with obvious concern in his tone. Burying his face into the pillows, Kihyun exhaled, shakily. It took a moment for him to speak.

“Are you alone?” he asked, softly. Minhyuk looked at him in curiosity before taking a seat next to the lighter haired man and placing a gentle hand onto his back with kind eyes——an attempt to be soothing. And in the moment, there was nothing Kihyun adored more than his partner. 

“Yeah,” Minhyuk said, “I am. Hyungwon left just a little while ago to go get something from the vending machines downstairs.”

Kihyun turned his head and looked up at the older man, shifting his head onto Minhyuk’s lap and sighing softly. For once, he allowed himself to actually _feel_ like the younger of the two. For years, he'd let Minhyuk act like a child and babied him because the older man deserved the kindness and love of a family. In this moment, though, Kihyun needed it more. And Minhyuk saw that clearly; easily letting the younger man fall against him without a word——willing to listen for as long as the younger wanted to speak (not only because Kihyun wasn't someone who spoke about his emotions, normally).

Something was wrong if the younger man chose to open up, first.

So, everything else be damned for the sake of his partner——Minhyuk’s priorities would always be with the man he worked miracles with.

“Is he coming back?”

The taller man carded gentle fingers into Kihyun’s hair and the younger relaxed at the touch——finally able to loosen up after having thrown himself for a spin in the presence of a certain blond officer.

“He is, but not for a while,” Minhyuk reassured with a gentle smile, encouraging, “Tell me anything you need to, Hyun. I’m here to listen to you.”

It took a moment for the younger man to grasp his ideas and in the end, he inhaled sharply and brought his hands to his face, fingers almost visibly trembling as he tried to piece his words together coherently.

"... I should have listened to you," Kihyun whispered, sounding broken (but, he couldn't have felt anymore shattered than the man he'd left in the middle of a conversation, because of a conversation that struck too many emotional nerves for him to handle).

With curious eyes, Minhyuk watched the younger man. He'd underestimated the caliber of the problem when he assumed that there was something wrong——Kihyun had never been the type of person to speak up about his feelings, nor admit that someone else was right. For the sake of his pride, maybe. But, the younger man bottled up everything and refused to admit to his emotions in fear of everything slipping out from his grasp and escaping him entirely.

But, everything that kept every little thing to itself and held onto even the smallest things would eventually break. And from the soft tremor in Kihyun's voice and the way his eyes darkened, Minhyuk could only assume that Kihyun was like a rubber band threatening to break under the pressure of everything around him. And there was a heart-wrenching pity associated with it.

“Shouldn’t you always?” Minhyuk jested, trying to lighten the mood, just a little bit. Kihyun barely cracked a smile and the older man held his breath.

“I should, shouldn’t I?” Kihyun replied, empty. “Do you remember when you told me that I shouldn’t keep holding things to myself and just _try_ to live a little——feel a little?”

It took a moment for the older man to recall when he'd said the familiar words to the younger man. In the passing years, he'd said so many things that were similar to that——this, in particular, he recalled as a vital moment in the development of their relationship into what they were today. Minhyuk blinked at him, nodding, “I said that just a couple weeks after we met.”

“I should have listened to you,” Kihyun repeated. “I should have just... learned how to _feel_ a little more and then become immune to all of these stupid emotions. I shouldn’t have to feel _sick_ after doing what I just did.”

With hesitation, Minhyuk’s eyes searched Kihyun’s figure and his voice was soft when he inquired, “Oh no, Hyun,” he breathed. “What have you done to be like this?”

Swallowing hard, Kihyun bit onto his lower lip before he raised his eyes to look at Minhyuk, guiltily.

"Do you remember the feeling that you had when I told you that I couldn't ever love you because I wasn't fit for something as pointless as romance?" Kihyun asked, hesitantly. Every word leaving his lips had him reeling with questions about if it was appropriate to fit his words together——they told the same story, but it was like having two almost identical pieces of a puzzle and trying to fit them together to make a picture. The end result simply wasn't perfect.

“I think I’ve just made someone else feel like that,” Kihyun said. “... only without any words at all.”

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

 _Awkward_. It’s terribly awkward for both Hoseok and Kihyun to see one another——they hardly get any work done anymore, but they’re the brains of the operations and Kihyun refused to work with anyone but Minhyuk. Unfortunately, Hoseok had been planning everything with him since the beginning and the black haired man had never been the best listener when it came to Kihyun’s plans, anyway.

It takes exactly another week of bearing with the way the two older man danced around one another like playing with fire, before Hyungwon finally snapped. Hyungwon wasn't the best with all of his emotions, but he knew as a fact that whatever happened between the two had triggered his generally affectionate partner to change almost completely. He didn't know Kihyun well enough to make a call on that, but the limited time he got to spend alone with Minhyuk when Kihyun hardly ever left his side was beginning to get annoying.

“Officer Shin,” Hyungwon called, when he was sure that they were both alone in their hotel room. Hoseok seemed to flinch at the title, before he looked up from awkwardly fiddling with his phone.

“What is it?” he asked, trying to look normal. But, an entire week of watching the older man act all jittery and uncomfortable about every little thing around him ensured that Hyungwon wouldn’t fall for poor acting.

Hyungwon settled onto the bed across from Hoseok and exhaled softly, “What happened with Kihyun?”

Direct and right to the point——Hyungwon had always been that kind of person, but he felt a pang of guilt when Hoseok visibly tensed at the sound of the other man’s name. Talking about their feelings has always been something they failed to do often, but something that Hoseok openly encouraged. In this moment, however, it looked like the blond would be willing to do anything if it meant that he wouldn’t have to hear Kihyun’s name.

Something flowed through Hyungwon’s veins as a pulsing concern, and something so much more bitter——perhaps, _pity_.

Hoseok avoided the younger man’s eyes and he pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth, as if trying to find the words to describe what had happened with the younger man——describe what had happened to leave his heart feeling so empty, cold and damaged with a gaping hole.

“I did something stupid,” he ended up replying, and the four words just seemed to take everything out of him. “I did something so stupid, Hyungwon. I did something that I shouldn’t have done. I really shouldn’t have——”

The worst thing that someone could do while another was freaking out was to tell them to calm down——Hyungwon knew that from the years of training at the policing academy, so he pressed his lips together and he eyed his partner with concern. He couldn’t grasp what would be classified as so stupid that the blond reacted in such a way——if it was with Kihyun, then the brunet could have sworn that they’d gone distances with one another in terms of their relationship. If hooking up with the enemy wasn’t already classified as stupid, then _what could be worse?_

“What happened? What did you do?” Hyungwon asked, brows furrowing a little.

Hoseok hesitated before responding and he held his breath, falling back on his bed with a glow of utmost guilt in his expression. For a moment, he couldn’t find his words, again. Had this occurred before he’d met Lee Minhyuk, then maybe he wouldn’t have had the patience to listen to the older man’s silence, while he tried to think of the right thing to say——the perks of being around the older man seemed to be gracing him with a greater sense of understand. Maybe, changing for the better.

"You told me to be careful," Hoseok replied, "You said that Minhyuk and Kihyun are such likeable people and that I was someone who was easily manipulated into being compassionate to the criminals. The plan wasn't to fall in love with the target and then stupidly _admit_ it to him.”

It took a moment before Hyungwon understood what the older man was trying to tell him. Wide eyes directed themselves to the blond, scanning him up and down before Hyungwon breathed a response, “You... fell in love with...?”

“Kihyun,” Hoseok finished. “I tried to deny it for so long, but there was just something about him that made it impossible for me to not _gravitate_ towards him. We spent so much time together, how would you think that I _wouldn’t?_ You said so yourself, Officer Chae: I’m weak to these kinds of things and I shouldn’t let it affect my work, but I have——and I can’t even think about throwing him behind bars, even though his response to my confession was to _coldly walk away_.

“It probably sounds so pitiful, doesn’t it? For an enforcer of the law, a slave to the government, to be in love with a _criminal_. It sounds like something out of a terrible movie with the shittiest plot in the world. A cliché that I wish I didn’t have to deal with. How am I supposed to choose between my job and someone who _doesn’t even want me?_ I know what the logical thing to pick is, and I’d do it if I weren’t so stupidly head over heels for someone I’ve only known for a month and a half. I’m so weak for him, Hyungwon, what am I supposed to do? Up until now, I’ve always been the one to give you all the advice, but what do I do?

“The thought of locking him away; he doesn’t _deserve_ it——he’s been through so much in his life. Meeting Minhyuk changed his life completely and for the better. Maybe, I’m not fit to be an officer; I don’t have the heart to commit to half the arrests that I’m expected to do. We’re partnered up because I’m the best and so are you, but this entire thing... it makes me _question_ myself. I know I shouldn’t easily believe in the words of a criminal, like this and you’d be so disappointed in me, but...”

Hyungwon cut the other man off with a quiet voice, hesitant and unsure——almost as if he couldn’t believe that such words were leaving his lips, “If we pretend to lack information, do you think that violates the oath we swore?”

Hoseok stopped, looking up with wide eyes, “What?”

“Minhyuk,” Hyungwon started, “I don’t want to lose him. If we drag out the mission and just keep reporting back to the headquarters and tell them that we don’t have information to complete the arrest, do you think that violates the oath we swore?”

“Are you proposing that I _do_ give up everything I’ve ever worked for simply for the sake of chasing after love?” Hoseok stayed silent for a moment, not actually pondering the idea, “If we stay silent for too long, wouldn’t STARSHIP just retract us and send other people after them?” Hoseok paused, confused brows furrowing slightly at the mention of his object of affection’s partner. “But, Minhyuk? You don’t want to lose him?”

Hyungwon paused, “He’s... special.”

Brushing the remainder of the topic about Minhyuk off, Hyungwon shifted the conversation back to his partner, who seemed to have grasped a part of his sanity back, “We’re meant to be defending the law and throwing people into jail when they deserve it, not fall in love with them and then think that they don’t deserve it. I’m not disappointed in you,” Hyungwon replied, “I saw this coming from a mile away, but I didn’t think it would be this deep. ... and I don’t think that Minhyuk deserves it, either. He’s a good person.”

“It’s a battle between the law, which we swore ourselves to; self-interest, which we happen to want to succumb to, because of the thieves we’re supposed to throw in jail; and the years we’ve spent together, Hyungwon,” Hoseok exhaled, “And I don’t know which one I value more. We fuck this up and we risk losing one another——and the past few years we’ve spent working together prove to me that I work _well_ with a partner, so long as it’s you. I don’t want to lose that.”

“That’s...” Hyungwon blinked at the older man, before shaking off his initial bout of confusion and clearing his throat, “I didn’t know you felt like that. But, I guess it throws another problem at us, huh?”

“Well, if self-interest wins over our loyalty to the law, then you know as a fact that I would be the only person in the entire unit who would defend you over anything and everything,” Hoseok replied, tone solemn and ever so honest——as Hoseok always was, “And I like to think that you’d do the same for me, now that you admit that you’ve... got a _soft spot_ for Lee Minhyuk.”

There was a moment of silence between the two of them——unsure of what to say, because their minds threw the both of them for a spin they weren’t expecting. Confronting Hoseok about the strange behaviour he’d been having around Kihyun wasn’t planned to become a deep, emotional talk about their emotions and the things they were suddenly weak for.

And it was the blond who spoke first to break the almost awkward silence between them. “What do you feel for him, Hyungwon?”

Hyungwon hesitated, eyes burning holes into the white sheets as he looked down, sifting through his brain for the right words to describe the feelings he had around Minhyuk. He faltered for a second, unable to pinpoint the feeling to anything else he’d ever felt in his life, and it might have sounded terribly sappy if said aloud. So, he kept it to himself.

Both officers happened to share a single trait that kept them so tightly entwined with the idea of working with one another——that had been the passion they shared in enforcing the law and keeping a society safe. The doubt which overcame the both of them when emotions became a weapon that struck at their pride was a faltering step in their loyalty, and the ascension to the recognition all officers and agents in such a work field _dreamed_ of.

They had their minds set in stone with the end result, but there were always bumps in the road, yet suddenly doubting everything they believed in for the sake of people they’d known for less than two months——that was ridiculous. But, the battle between the heart and mind always seemed to show a flawed, biased result.

_How could you deny something you felt so strongly about?_

Raising his eyes to meet with Hoseok’s, his tone dropped; more serious than anything, dark irises glowing with a sincerity that Hoseok’s never quite seen in the younger man’s eyes before. The reality dawned on the blond before the words left Hyungwon’s lips——he should have noticed the little changes in the way the younger officer acted, recently. But, he was swallowed up in himself and his self-pity to recognize that his partner was almost acting as a perfect mirror to himself.

He’d been wondering why Hyungwon now seemed to be so open to a thousand different things that he wouldn’t have even given a second thought to, when they’d been paired with one another. Hoseok waited for the answer he already knew with his eyes focused on a blank spot on the wrinkled sheets of his own bed.

“I love him.”

_And love changes you._

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

Days after the conversation with Hoseok in their room, Hyungwon found himself easily falling towards Minhyuk. Every second that he was given the opportunity, he would spend his time beside the older man. Minhyuk didn’t mind it at all——eyes glistening with a mischievous glow, whenever the younger man pulled him into an affectionate hug. Hoseok hadn’t said anything to him about the disapproval of his feelings for the black haired thief, but he failed to bring up the courage to strike a conversation with Kihyun.

They found themselves laying outside on the grass, arms tucked underneath their heads as their eyes stared up at the starlit sky. Words came scarcely between the two of them in moments like this, but Hyungwon never seemed to mind it. It was _comfortable_ to be with the older man like this. And he thinks that he might just be too deep, considering he’d always been someone who was emotionally detached from the world. Minhyuk changed him so, so quickly.

And he couldn’t think of a single reason that this could be a bad thing.

Minhyuk pressed his lips into a thin smile, and while secretly gazing at the other man, Hyungwon couldn’t help but mirror the expression. And Minhyuk turned his head slightly, noticing the change of Hyungwon’s expression; his tone was light and cheerful, eyes practically dancing underneath the moonlight, “Why are you smiling?”

“I’m just thinking,” Hyungwon answered, “And looking at you.”

Minhyuk’s eyes twinkled, “Do you see something you like?”

“Yeah,” there wasn’t a moment of hesitation in the response and Minhyuk laughed at the immediate answer, the corners of his eyes crinkling with amusement.

Shifting on Hyungwon's laid out jacket, Minhyuk hummed softly and closed his eyes. Hyungwon spent a brief moment admiring the way the moonlight traced the soft contours of Minhyuk's face and highlighted his features, gently. Eyes running across the older man's visage, Hyungwon couldn't help the way his heart skipped a beat when the older man's lashes fluttered open and met his eyes; dark irises ever so captivating.

“Hey, what do you think about us?”

Blinking in curiosity, Hyungwon was unsure of how to answer the question for a moment, but then there was a second where the black haired man smiled with him with such encouragement——his words fell from his lips without restraint (and he’d later question how someone could have so much power over him with nothing but a sweet smile).

“What do I think about us?” Hyungwon mused, looking down at the older man and pursing his lips in feigned thought, “I don’t think I have a proper answer for that, but I don’t want to think about anything _but_ us. There’s something about the idea of _us_ that makes me so happy, and I know there's no official name for what we are because we've only known one another for so long, but there are _things_ that I feel around you that can't be explained in words. Don't I sound like a stupid teenager in love, and not a twenty-five-year-old man who should have more of a grasp on everything he feels?

“Maybe, that’s because I’ve never experienced this before. _This_ ——this being the way you make my heart race in my chest, and it’s the strangest feeling I’ve ever felt for anyone in my entire life. The entire thought of us makes me smile; just being with you is enough to make me smile, and I don’t know when I became so dependent on someone to make me smile, but you do that for me and I’m simply... so amazed that you can make me feel ways.

“I think a lot of things about us; maybe, it all started after you trusted me enough to tell me about the story of your life and why you’re the way you are. Maybe, even before that——I’m not really sure when all this started, but I know that you make me not want to behave. And that’s _amazing_ , considering who I am.”

Minhyuk stared at him in awe as he finished off his speech and the corners of the older man’s lips curled into a small smile. Suddenly, the younger man was insecure about everything he’s said——had he said something a little too much, while he was pouring out everything he felt? There was the hesitation, before Hyungwon cleared his throat and shifted his eyes to the side, trying to avoid the way Minhyuk looked at him with endearing eyes——it made him feel _shy._

“What do you think about us?” Hyungwon repeated the question, unsure of where the conversation would take a turn, after he’d practically spilled his entire heart out to the older man.

He wasn't disappointed, when Minhyuk shifted from where he was sprawled on the ground and he sat up to flash a small smile at the younger man. Minhyuk moved a little closer to him——close enough for Hyungwon to smell the sweet scent of Minhyuk's cologne infiltrating through his lungs. He'd missed the scent, because, for the past week, every moment with Minhyuk had the older man smelling like Kihyun's burned out cigarettes and the distinct scent of the other man's cologne.

“I don’t know what I think about us, if I’m honest with you, but my heart’s in a better place whenever you’re around,” Minhyuk whispered into Hyungwon’s hair, arms wrapping around the taller man’s frame. “I wasn’t expecting you to really tell me everything about what you felt for me, but... I can’t say that I’m upset about it. In fact, I think I’m really happy about it——it’s like... you know when you’re so into someone and they feel the same way and your heart just kind of explodes with happiness?”

Hyungwon blinked, shaking his head.

Minhyuk laughed softly, the sound leaving his lips as a light, breathless sound, “I forgot that this was a first for you,” he murmured, leaning a little closer to the younger man.

_“It feels like this.”_

And then Minhyuk’s lips were gently pressed to Hyungwon’s——and he swears he knows exactly what the older man meant when he said that your heart _explodes with happiness_.

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

****

There were many things that were strange between Kihyun and Minhyuk, despite knowing one another for years. Almost nothing should really come as a surprise anymore, because they knew one another so well——almost as well as the back of their own hands. They read one another like books——that’s just what a friendship of such lengths did to you.

And Minhyuk is practically glowing when he returns to the hotel room.

He found Kihyun curled up in bed, blankets pulled up to his waist and his laptop rested on his thighs, lit cigarette between his lips. The black haired man rolled his eyes and slid over to his partner with bright eyes, striking the first nerve of confusion in the lighter haired man, “What are you doing?”

There wasn't a single word spoken about the fact that Kihyun was sitting in bed and smoking at the same time——it had always been a peeve for the older man since Kihyun started smoking. It came as an almost horrific surprise for the black haired thief to not say a word about it.

Kihyun regarded him with quiet eyes, furrowing his brows before removing the cigarette from his lips, “You’re not complaining about me smoking in bed,” he said, suspiciously, “Who are you and what have you done to Minhyuk?”

“I just thought that I should take a break with scolding you, today,” Minhyuk answered, smiling. “I mean, it can’t be that bad. If you want to kill yourself by inhaling the stray ashes, when you’re asleep, that’s your problem.”

Despite the harshness of his words, Minhyuk’s tone never dimmed from its initial happiness. The cheerfulness of his partner was beginning to freak him out a little. Kihyun pursed his lips as he studied the older man’s expression, unsure of what to think about the way the other man was acting. _Strange_ , for certain.

He couldn’t resist the urge to narrow his eyes and suspiciously demand an answer from the older.

“Why are you so happy? This is really weird,” Kihyun frowned, “It’s starting to creep me out; you’re always happy, but you’re never _this_ happy. You look like Hyungwon just confessed his undying love to you, or some nasty shit like that.”

The glow in Minhyuk’s eyes didn’t dim, unlike it usually would, when the younger man made a jab at Minhyuk’s infatuation with the tall, dark haired man. That was the trigger to connect all the dots in Kihyun’s head and present him with a horrific conclusion.

“Oh my _god_ ,” Kihyun paused, “You can’t be serious. Did he really?”

Minhyuk’s eyes sparkled, “Hyun, he _loves_ me.”

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

****

The problem with trying to respect Minhyuk’s newfound happiness that as everything related to Chae Hyungwon was that Kihyun couldn’t keep the older man to himself and make him pay attention to him instead of the youngest. Minhyuk practically glowed when he spoke of the younger man’s name and it had Kihyun thinking——is that what love did to people, these days? Had he missed out on so much when he’d given up on the entire idea of love?

So, a night out in the city alone had Kihyun’s head heavy with thoughts. Unsure of what to think and unsure of what to do when his partner had practically been snatched away from him by something called _love_. He needed to be happy for Minhyuk, because he’d never seen the older man any brighter, since the very first time that they came out of a dangerous mission together, unscathed.

With a cigarette between his lips, lit and burning, Kihyun leaned against the glass door of the small shop he’d entered just moments ago, and he watched as people passing by ignored his existence as they passed by. There wasn’t a significance to people of the people loitering on the streets and Kihyun wondered how _anyone_ could go from strangers to being madly in love if it was like this.

When he exhaled a mouthful of smoke, a small child from behind him tugged on the material of his jacket. She looked up at him with curiosity and he turned to look at her with curiosity.

“Mister, excuse me,” she started. Kihyun looked down at her, fingers pulling the cigarette from his lips and holding it to his side——away from her, making sure that the toxic smoke wouldn’t fly in her direction; he answered her softly, though his voice was rasped with the damage from inhaling smoke.

“Yes, what is it?”

“There’s someone staring at you,” she told him, innocently with her eyes wide with the sincerity in her words. Kihyun felt his heart melting at the concern she expressed. “He’s been staring at you for a while. I just wanted to tell you, because mommy told me that it’s dangerous when people stare at you for too long. They might have bad ideas.”

Eyes flicking away from her to study his surroundings, he caught sight of an all too familiar silhouette and he felt that swirl of guilt flood his mind again——Hoseok.

Bending down slightly, Kihyun smiled at the girl, “Thank you, sweetie. You don’t need to worry about me.”

She flashed him both her thumbs up with a cheeky smile and ran off with a woman whom he assumed to be her mother. A part of Kihyun’s heart ached at the memories of walking down busy streets with his parents in the middle of the night, as a child. Clearing his mind, he pushed himself off of the glass surface of the door and tugged his hood over his head, heading over to Hoseok’s direction. They needed to speak again, at some point.

Giving up speaking to Hoseok would mean giving up half of a plan to infiltrate and complete a task assigned by the Underground, and Kihyun couldn’t risk that threat against his pride for the sake of his heart.

“How long were you intending on standing there and staring at me?” Kihyun asked, when he finally made it to the blond’s side. Hoseok had been watching him the entire time, unsure of what to expect as the younger man approached him.

“I don’t really know,” Hoseok admitted, looking down and leaning back against the wall he’d been standing near. “I don’t think I would have ever really said anything to you. I’m not sure what you want me to say, Kihyun.”

There was a hesitance and Kihyun held his breath, shifting his eyes to the ground, before raising them to gaze at the blond man. “Well... how about you start off with why you came to look for me, after I apologize to you for what I did?”

Hoseok looked at him in shock, irises almost visibly shaking with the surprise, “Apologize?”

"Minhyuk has always told me that my pride could be a little too much, but I know when I'm wrong, and I'm sorry for walking out on you without a word, the other day," Kihyun replied, hands slipping into his pockets and he grit his teeth, looking away from the blond. "I just didn't know what to do, when you said all of that."

“Minhyuk told me where you were,” Hoseok breathed, “He said that you haven’t been the same since that night, and he wanted me to try and make things normal again——whatever _normal_ between the two of us meant. I came to him to look for you because I assumed that he'd tell me, since you told Hyungwon where _he_ was, when Minhyuk was mad at him.”

“I’m not mad at you,” Kihyun started, looking up at Hoseok. The blond pressed his lips into a thin smile, “I don’t deserve to be mad at you. You didn’t really do anything wrong. You just... told me about how you felt.”

“With the full knowledge that you’re someone who can’t stand the entire idea of love, because it just isn’t something that you believe in, after losing everything,” Hoseok reasoned, as if he wanted to justify Kihyun’s reasons for being mad at him. But, he wasn’t angry with Hoseok——no matter how much they argued it, he simply didn’t have a right to be furious at someone who logically did nothing wrong. His lack of an ability to grasp his emotions should be the fault. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“But, how shitty does it feel to bottle everything up?” Kihyun’s hand formed a fist in the pocket of his jacket——a jacket that was a little too thick for the summer air, and his other fingers tightened their grip on the cigarette.

“You’d know, right?” Hoseok looked at him with those soft eyes that had triggered his emotions to spiral into a down falling chaos, and he felt the guilt flooding towards him again. “I was right when I said that you’re someone who would much rather swallow all of their feelings and pretend they didn’t exist, instead of trying, right?”

Kihyun shifted uncomfortably on his feet and looked up to the streetlight above them, before looking back to Hoseok, nodding his head. Admitting it felt like letting all of his deepest secrets spill from his lips, and Kihyun couldn’t manage to hold himself together, after it all. The rush to his head demanded that he soothe it with the inhalation of something deadly, but Kihyun’s cigarette had burned out and it was useless to calm his nerves, at this point. But knowing that someone else, someone who hadn’t known him for years like Minhyuk had, could read into him so easily——it was almost terrifying.

“I would,” he confirmed, biting down onto his lower lip. Hoseok studied his expression for a long, quiet moment, before turning to look away from Kihyun. Both of them stood in silent under the dim glow of the streetlight; unsure of where the conversation was taking a turn to, and unsure of what they were doing.

Reaching into his pocket, Hoseok fished a cigarette from his jacket and quietly lit it, fingers shaking as if he were stressed from having spoken too much——Kihyun knew the feeling a little too well. The instinctive _need_ to smoke to calm down——Minhyuk had always scolded him for shortening his lifespan with a whine of how he needed the younger man by his side to make their shared career work.

It’s after a silence, standing in front of one another and quietly looking away from the other, in fear of having to be the first to initiate conversation does Hoseok speak up, again. And had Kihyun been paying more attention to the bustling street behind them, then he wouldn’t have heard the way the blond’s tone trembled with the threat of overflowing emotions.

“Love doesn’t have to be forever, you know,” Hoseok murmured, cigarette hanging from his lips, “You’ve always told me that you don’t believe in _forever_ , but just... it doesn’t have to be forever. Love exists and that’s a fact.”

Kihyun frowned. Cautious fingers swiped the cigarette from Hoseok's lips and brought it to his own lips, inhaling a mouthful of smoke, letting it fill his lungs with the toxic taste, “Then, why do you keep pushing the entire idea of _forever_ to me? I know love exists——you don’t need to convince me that it does, because I know that it does. I’m just not fond of the idea that everyone thinks it can be forever, because that’s just sheer naivety.”

The words seemed to lighten the older man’s mood; Hoseok’s eyes raised to the stars and he chuckled softly, linking his fingers with Kihyun’s free hand without permission. The younger man didn’t argue it; eyes widening with surprise at the sudden touch, “I’m just trying to make you believe it a little more, because I’d just like it to be forever, if it’s you.”

“... You haven’t given up on me?” Kihyun asked, sounding a little too amazed. Hoseok laughed, shaking his head as if the younger man’s inquiry was entirely too ridiculous for him to understand.

“I don’t think I really could,” Hoseok answered, “It doesn’t work like that, you know. But, if you’ve changed your mind... then the offer to not think of me like _just_ a summer fling... that’s still up.”

“Don’t say it like that,” Kihyun breathed, eyes blown wide in slight panic, “It’s not like that. I don’t want you to think of it like that. I never had the intention of making you feel like that. I’m really sorry, Hoseok...”

“Stop apologizing, Kihyun,” Hoseok told him, softly.

The smaller man shook his head and clasped his own hands together, awkwardly, “I’ve just never let anyone hold me and make me feel loved, before. I don’t know what to do.”

Hoseok shook his head, a small smile on his lips; somewhat endearing, “You don’t need experience to know what to do——it just kind of comes naturally. Kihyun, won’t you let me be the first one to make you feel like that?”

Holding his breath, Kihyun’s eyes raised to the older man’s face, simply trying to gauge the honesty in the older man’s words. Hoseok’s fingers gripped his a little tighter, and when Kihyun didn’t answer, he pulled him a little closer to himself with a small smile, “Please?”

“What if you bring my hopes up and crush me, at the end of it all, because you can’t take me?” Kihyun asked, quietly.

“I won’t. I won’t ever do that to you, I promise,” Hoseok whispered, fingers running gently across the back of the younger man’s hand, trying to soothe him from the mess of thoughts in his mind. Kihyun’s mind visibly reeled with the thoughts and Hoseok waited, patiently.

Burying his face into the blond’s neck, when he finally made his decision, Kihyun bit his lower lip, playing absently with the cigarette in his hands, “Just, please don’t hurt me.”

Hoseok wrapped his arms around Kihyun’s waist, lips curling into a small smile, “Is this the part where I get to kiss you, now?”

“I think so,” Kihyun replied, lowering his hand and eyes raising to meet with Hoseok’s. The blond’s eyes almost visibly twinkled when he looked up at him.

“Close your eyes.”

Kihyun does, and he waits for the moment their lips meet. Butterflies escape into his stomach when they do, fluttering relentlessly. The light haired man parted his lips, tugging onto Hoseok’s shirt and unceremoniously, Kihyun exhaled the smoke into Hoseok’s mouth and the older man choked on the sudden infiltration of toxins into his mouth, coughing loudly and pulling away from Kihyun, looking at him with betrayed eyes.

“What the _fuck_ , Kihyun?”

“You said you could deal with me,” Kihyun replied, innocently.

Hoseok rolled his eyes and pulled the cigarette away from him, wrapping his arms around the younger man, eyes still red from the tears from the initial shock. The blond pulled the cigarette away from the smaller man and held it between his own fingers, glaring at the younger, before leaning in to press their lips together.

“I’m keeping my word.”

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to him——Hoseok and loving him. And Minhyuk is more than thrilled about it. Their nights that aren’t spent together to plan the heist has Minhyuk insisting that they all go out together. Watching Kihyun finally open up to someone was a miracle to the black haired thief and every little thing about it was _so_ special.

In a way, the way the other thief reacted to the things that Kihyun and Hoseok did together was _humorous_. And he happened to do it to an extent that had the younger man feeling a little awkward about accepting the blond's affection in public. Minhyuk cooed at them when Hoseok pulled the smaller thief into his lap and wrapped his arms around his waist. But, it's funnier when Hyungwon rolled his eyes and returned the action, grabbing onto the black haired man and seating him into his lap.

And in that, they have bliss.

Minhyuk wrapped his arms around Kihyun, when they were alone in their hotel room for once in forever and grinned cheekily at him, eyes shining, “I told you that it wouldn’t be terrible to let yourself fall in love, didn’t I?”

The younger man only rolled his eyes and pushed his partner away with a laugh, “Maybe it’s not too bad.”

Minhyuk pressed a kiss to Kihyun’s cheek and smiled, innocently, “You should trust me more often, shouldn’t you?”

“Excuse me, but I don’t have the time to deal with your bullshit, right now,” Kihyun teased, pushing Minhyuk away, playfully. “I have a date to go on.”

Minhyuk made a smothering and loud cooing sound at him and let him go, eyes twinkling. “Tell me all the details.”

There was a first for everything. To Kihyun, it was amazing that they’d met in June and by August, they were in love and _so important_ to one another. Love really does change someone, because admitting it to the older man aloud had some sort of special effect on him——falling into affection with someone else just felt like something entirely _so_ new. And it made him wonder whatever held him back.

It turned out that after everything, being happy with Hoseok was all that really mattered in his head. The thought of having them end struck him as ridiculous, and maybe that was exactly what he always insulted foolish lovers for. But, when Hoseok smiled at him, he couldn’t help but melt a little; he felt his heart warming and his lips always seemed to easily tug into a small smile.  
  
Dating someone was _strange_.

Kihyun spent his entire life not caring for romance and only smothering his family in love until they were taken away from him. To have everything change so quickly, it seemed almost too good to be true, and his shy affection sometimes seemed too awkward to be real. Yet, the heavy infatuation he felt for the blond man couldn't have been any more genuine.

Knocking his hand knuckles against the door of Hoseok’s hotel room, Kihyun shifted on his feet, waiting for his boyfriend of two weeks to open the door. Hoseok is quicker than he anticipated, opening the door with bright eyes and pulling him in for a quick kiss.

“Morning, babe,” Hoseok grinned. “You’re early.”

Kihyun clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, “I wanted to get away from Minhyuk.”

Hoseok laughed. “You don’t have to lie. Just tell me that you missed me a little too much.”

Kihyun pushed the older man with a roll of his eyes, but it was only in good nature. He had no qualms against the sappy words which never failed to leave Hoseok’s lips——and it’s amusing, because he couldn’t seem to recall if the older man had always been like that. Linking their fingers together, Kihyun pressed his lips into a small smile and tilted his head slightly, “Shut up, where are you taking me today?”

Two weeks into their relationship had nothing really changing between the two of them. Snarky comments from Kihyun seemed to be a basis of everything they talked about, but Hoseok’s affectionate heart didn’t seem to mind it.

And if loving Kihyun like this was a crime, then Hoseok could shut off his mind and turn away from everything he’d ever worked for and say something along the lines of: he didn’t want his recognition as an officer of the law. And the blond swore even his own partner had to feel the same way with how infatuated with Lee Minhyuk he was.

Gently squeezing Kihyun’s hand, Hoseok tugged him down the hall.

“That’s a secret.”

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

Grasping onto Minhyuk’s hand as the older man pulled away from his hold, Hyungwon trapped him between his arms and pressed their foreheads together with a small smile. The taller man leaned his back against the wall and his arms affectionate pulled Minhyuk back into his arms, the black haired man falling easily into his arms and looking up at him, amused.

“I don’t want you to leave, yet,” Hyungwon murmured, tone a little shy. And as a quick afterthought, he pursed his lips and let his eyes flutter shut as his forehead rested gently against Minhyuk’s. “I have something for you,”

Minhyuk flashed him an endearing smile, though he couldn’t see it, and he tilted his head a little, questioning——Hyungwon felt the slight movement and his eyes flickered open again, slowly, “Something for me?” Minhyuk repeated.

The taller man nodded, fiddling absently with Minhyuk’s fingers. The older waited for the revelation with bright, curious eyes. Hyungwon almost seemed to tremble with nervousness as his boyfriend’s eyes scanned him——it’s a first for him to be giving gifts, but when he’d gone out of his way to go to the store and buy something for Hoseok, he’d seen the prettiest bracelet and immediately, he thought of it on Minhyuk’s wrist. And he couldn’t shove away the idea of buying it for him.

So now, the gift seemed to burn through the pocket of the younger man’s jeans as the black haired man gazed up at him.

“I’m really bad at giving gifts,” he prefaced, nervously and Minhyuk laughed.

“I’ll love anything you give me,” he replied, softly. Someone passed them in the hallway and spared them a quick glance; it only made Hyungwon feel a little more nervous about everything. Clearing his throat, he squeezed Minhyuk’s fingers, gently.

“You’re just saying that,” Hyungwon mumbled, but Minhyuk flashed him a dazzling smile and shook his head.

“I’m serious. I love you and I’ll love anything about you,” Minhyuk remarked. A light flush coloured Hyungwon’s cheeks. They had no problems with admitting their love for one another, but it always made the younger man’s heart flutter a little——it was a nice feeling, but sometimes, it just felt like a little too much.

The hand that was holding Minhyuk’s dropped the grip and he slipped it into his pocket, fumbling with the silver chain before fishing it out of his pocket and dangling it in front of the older man’s eyes. He couldn’t bring himself to look directly into Minhyuk’s eyes as he presented the gift, but the other man seemed to understand. With eyes struck with awe and a fond smile on his lips, the black haired man’s hand, once entwined with Hyungwon’s fingers, reached for the silver item. And for a moment, he was speechless——unsure of what to say.

At the extended silence, Hyungwon brought his other hand to his mouth, coughing into his fist, awkwardly. Minhyuk snapped out of his little trance and his smile widened.

“Oh my gosh,” he breathed, “It’s beautiful.”

Biting onto his lower lip, Hyungwon smiled a little at the reaction, “Maybe that’s why it reminded me of you.”

Shyly smacking the younger man's chest, Minhyuk's eyes danced with happiness as he closed his fingers around the cool metal of the chain. He'd never really been one to wear accessories, simply because he always had the urge to give everything to charitable foundations instead of keeping them for himself, but he brushed off the thought. He'd keep this for himself like he intended to keep Hyungwon to himself.

“Tell me when you got so gross,” he teased, the corners of his lips refusing to settle from their upturned position.

“I learned from Hoseok,” Hyungwon replied, laughing softly.

“I should have known,” Minhyuk feigned a disappointed sigh, but his smile never vanished from his lips. He leaned back against the younger man, stepping onto the tips of his toes to press a quick kiss to Hyungwon’s lips. “Thank you, baby.”

And Hyungwon’s heart found itself fluttering into overdrive; the butterflies threatening to swallow him alive, and the smile on his lips not daring to fade. It had been much too long since he found himself unable to stop smiling, but whenever he was around the thief, he couldn’t help but think about all the ways that Lee Minhyuk made him so, _so_ happy.

Between his pride and everything he ever believed in, he couldn’t help but think that there wouldn’t be a problem with giving up his entire legacy, his everything, so long as he could stay by Minhyuk’s side. Simply because the older made him so happy that he was worthy of the title of being Hyungwon’s _everything_.

It’s ridiculous——how much his mindset had changed since meeting the thieves; how much his way of thinking had changed since falling in love with Minhyuk. A couple months ago, he wouldn’t have even considered finding compassion in the words of a thief, but every little thing about Minhyuk was so genuine and sweet, that he couldn’t help but fall head over heels for the older man.

Maybe there wasn’t a word for what he felt for Minhyuk——the adoration of such a caliber? Something that was able to coax him to drop everything and stay, if Minhyuk just asked? That was something of _such_ strength, and Hyungwon wondered if all kinds of love were like this, because if it was, then he couldn't imagine why there could be any hate in the world.

In his eyes, at this point, there was nothing that Minhyuk could possibly ever do wrong——call him naive, but there was just something in affection that prevented him from thinking ill of the older man. So in love that it drove him mad——that’s what his mother would call it.

And suddenly, he understood how his boyfriend felt when his parents had demanded that he step away from the life he was leading. There was a thrill with everything that you loved, and it was impossible to turn away for too long. Simply put, love changed you. And he’d take being called an idiot, so long as he could always hold onto the older man’s hand and never let go.

(So, he’d pray that Minhyuk would forgive him, for the sake of their love, if the truth ever came out.)

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

****

New York City was a dream come true for both Kihyun and Hoseok——falling in love with one another wasn’t a part of the plan, but it was something that they were both so glad for. And Kihyun could understand why such a city could be called _The City of Dreams_ ——following a storyline for thieves stealing one another’s hearts; he couldn’t help but think that it was something so amusing, his life had always been the opposite of an ideal romantic movie, but every moment in Hoseok’s arms made him think that maybe, good things really did come to those who waited patiently.

Had someone told him, months ago, that he would find a reason to fall in love again (find a reason to give love a chance again), then he would have laughed in their faces, tell them they were stupid, absurd, _naive_. But, whenever he looked at Hoseok, he couldn’t bring himself to believe that he’d ever thought such a thing.

All too quickly, they fell in love. And it felt almost too good to be true, yet Hoseok held him in his arms with so much genuineness and endearment that his heart fluttered whenever they stood close enough for him to smell the older man's sweet cologne; then, he'd want to bury his face into the older man's chest and whisper to him about how happy he was, how in love he was.

And he was never one to be so affectionate——never one to easily express his feelings——he was shy with his words, but he meant them whenever they left his lips. Hoseok seemed to understand it all too well because the older man's fingers would ever so gently lace themselves with his, whenever he managed to express everything he felt, and he'd look at him with those gentle eyes, before kissing his forehead and telling him that he felt the same way.

Kihyun might not still believe in forever, but he couldn't deny that if it was with Hoseok, then he would love it if they could last forever. It made him wonder how he'd ever thought that he could go through all of life with just Minhyuk by his side——how he ever thought he could just bypass all the romantic things in life when every second of being in love was so ethereal.

Perhaps, Minhyuk was right when he said that this could be the greatest thing to ever happen to them——perhaps, pairing up with the strangers Changkyun introduced them to would be the single great thing in their lives. Because somewhere in the practical empire they reigned, they surely needed something more than just one another.

And Kihyun would happily take Hoseok as that _something_. If this was his reason to throw away everything that he’d forced himself to believe when he lost everything, then he’d take it with open arms and infinite gratitude, because Shin Hoseok, as the man who loved him for everything he was, was everything he ever unknowingly wanted and needed.

So, with their fingers gently intertwined with one another as they laid back in Hoseok’s bed, soft eyes directed at one another in utmost endearment——lips hovering over one another and breathless. It’s something that made his heart flutter; Kihyun found the sensation so strange, but with Hoseok, everything was a good kind of strange.

“God, I love you,” Hoseok murmured, running affectionate fingers through the younger man’s hair. Kihyun’s cheeks flushed with colour and he turned his head, lips curling into a small smile as he squeezed the older man’s fingers, slightly.

He doesn’t repeat it, he’s too shy to do it, even though they’re alone, but Hoseok doesn’t complain. He knows it’s hard, so instead Kihyun pulled the older man back towards him, lips softly pressed together.

 

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

 

Morning dawns over Kihyun’s body——he’s alone in bed, and there’s a handwritten note on the nightstand waiting for him. Hoseok noted that he’d stepped out for a short moment and hoped that Kihyun wouldn’t awaken before he returned, but in the case that he did, he should take a shower and wait for him to return (and that there were spare toothbrushes in the drawer of the sink, because Hoseok didn’t want him to leave yet——and Kihyun had to roll his eyes at his boyfriend’s level of adorable).

Three weeks into their relationship, it's one of the cutest things he's ever seen. Kihyun's heart fluttered at the scrawl across the paper and he smiled to himself, slipping out of bed. For a moment, as he moved the covers to the side and placed his feet on the hardwood floor of the hotel suite, he has to stop; wince at the sudden jolt of pain up his spine——body deliciously sore.

He bit back the smile. There was undoubtedly something so special about Shin Hoseok, because every time he gave himself to Minhyuk, there wasn’t that fluttering feeling in his chest, the morning after. There wasn’t this inexplicable bliss which flooded through his mind and there wasn’t that infinite feeling of being so _loved_. And he swore that he couldn’t have been ier with his decision, no matter how fast they were moving.

To get to where they were; from strangers to lovers in almost three months, it was almost amazing. And someone could have told them they were young and naive——that they’d regret everything sooner or later, but Kihyun would roll his eyes and dismissed what they believed in. Because love didn’t know time.

The shower is warm and washes away and gently soothes the pain from last night, and Kihyun daydreams as the water ran over his skin; rivulets dripping down his body and towards the ground. And he almost lost track of time beneath the soothing water and sweet thoughts about the man he was so in love with.

When he stepped out of the shower, he couldn’t help but think of Hoseok’s strong arms wrapping around him instead of the fluffy towel, and he laughed softly to himself at his ridiculousness. But, there was such a euphoria associated with being so heavily infatuated with someone, and it had to be normal for it all to be like _this_ the morning after. At least, he thought that was reasonable.

With the towel draped over his shoulders, Kihyun grabbed one of the shirts littered on the rack and he brought it to his nose, confirming the ownership as Hoseok’s with the scent, before slipping it on——it dropped just above his knee and he grinned in amusement at his own reflection (had Hoseok always worn such oversized clothing? He swore that he wasn’t that much smaller than the older man).

Eyes flickering to the clock, Kihyun hummed softly, moving to inspect the drawers for the aforementioned spare toothbrush that Hoseok had stored away for him. Trying his luck with the drawer to the left of the sink, first, Kihyun’s fingers hooked around the knob and gently tugged.

The drawer jammed as he pulled it out and Kihyun frowned, bending down onto his knees to take a look at what was causing the disruption——suddenly a little afraid of having broken something. He could afford to pay for the damages, but it didn’t mean he wouldn’t feel bad about it at all.

His eyes caught a silver glint in the dark corner of the drawer and his interest piqued. Reaching his hand into the small gap he managed to get in the drawer, Kihyun’s brows furrowed——his fingers brushed the item, but he failed to pull it out. It was cold and undoubtedly metal.

Withdrawing his hand, Kihyun attempted to push the drawer back in and out, in an attempt to loosen the jamming.

It works. He hears the sharp sound of the heavy item dropping and the drawer opened promptly when he attempted to slide it open again. Opening the drawer reveals a silver coloured item; it's cold in his hands when he picked it up——he recognizes it as a badge; the front is embossed with intricate gunmetal and gold, emphasizing the familiar agency name—— _STARSHIP_ ; underneath the banner with the agency name, _Special Agent_ was carved into the lower half of the silver shield.

Suddenly, Kihyun felt as if he was looking at something that he wasn’t supposed to find.

With his heart pumping loud in his chest and his curious fingers hesitantly turning it over, he found an engraving on the back: a series of numbers; a serial number for the badge. Mind weighed down with a sudden wave of suspicion that he wish never occurred to him, Kihyun bit down onto his lower lip.

In his hands was a police badge.

His heart grew heavy.

Praying for the best——for his naivety to prove him right——Kihyun rushed out of the washroom, fumbling to lock the door of the hotel room and then heading for the closet in the corner of the room. Inhaling a deep breath, Kihyun reached to open the double doors of the closet and rummaged through the clothing in search of Hoseok’s wallet.

 His heart hated his for being unable to trust the love of his life, but the possibilities bothered him to the core of his very existence. And his head continued to pray that it was just his imagination——a collector’s item, maybe, because there were strange people who collected police badges. Hoseok had said that he admired the police officers, anyway.

Practically pulling apart all the contents of Hoseok’s wallet, Kihyun held his breath as he dug through the pockets, in search of something suspicious. Minutes of digging through the cramped pockets of the wallet, Kihyun found the thin black card in the back of the wallet, hidden in an almost concealed pocket. Pulling the card out, the light haired man furrowed his brows.

Almost all of his concerns were confirmed with the agency name scribed over the top of the black card and a small photo of Hoseok printed onto it. Unable to accept believing his own eyes, Kihyun closed his eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly——trying to keep calm despite the raging storm inside of both his heart and mind.

Shaky fingers reaching behind him to pick the silver badge back up, he turned it over to glance at the identification number, before he held the badge and the identification card side by side, he attempted to match the numbers, mentally praying that he would be wrong, hoping that he wouldn’t find a match——that he was just overthinking and that it was just a badge which had been left behind in the hotel suite by a previous client.

His eyes shook and he carefully studied the letters and digits on the card and badge. _#S00103. Shin Hoseok._

The match was like pulling a trigger to directly to his heart, because with the confirmation, his heart dropped and his blood ran cold, before a sense of anger burned through his veins.

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

****

The betrayal simmered in his mind for a day and a half; tense around Hoseok and hardly the man that Hoseok fell in love with, and the blond expressed the concern with so much genuineness that Kihyun, for a second, almost thought of giving in and letting it all slide. But, his mind swore to him that if he dared to do such a thing, he'd never forgive himself.

So, a sunny Sunday morning had Kihyun beginning to pack his minimal belongings and chewing on his lower lip when Minhyuk arched an eyebrow and asked him what he was doing. He'd flashed his partner and innocent smile and shook his head with a quiet laugh, insisting that he was just reorganizing everything and that the black haired man should do the same.

The guilt buried itself deep into his gut, but he wanted to at least settle everything before bringing up the facts to Minhyuk——he knew as a fact that the older man would believe his word over everything, regardless. Six years of knowing one another ensured that they’d choose one another over anything else, any day. And that may have faltered, a week ago——right now, Kihyun only felt his heart breaking at the idea that Hoseok was no longer an option to choose over Minhyuk.

The clock struck a glaring hour five after noon when there was a knock on his door and Kihyun got up from where he was knelt down, peering through the little peephole, before opening the door and putting his best fake smile. Finding Hoseok alone outside his door was far from a surprise, so Kihyun bats his lashes with an eased practice and smiled. 

“I missed you,” Hoseok mumbled, tugging him into his arms. Kihyun fell into the older man’s strong arms——and his heart ached at the thought that he would actually miss this.

“Let’s go to your room,” Kihyun suggested, eyes shining as he looked up at his boyfriend (the title suddenly bitter in his mind).

Shuffling into the older man's hotel room, Kihyun quickly pushed him onto the sofa in the corner of the room. Hoseok's eyes widened in surprise, but he made no attempt at pushing the younger man away, expression pleased. It takes a moment before the younger man actually spoke up when the blond didn't speak first——a part of the younger man was glad that he didn't, because he wasn't quite sure how deep he'd fall back into Hoseok, if he did.

“Baby,” Kihyun cooed, wrapping his arms around Hoseok’s neck and straddling his lap with a coy smile. The blond officer leaned back in his seat on the sofa, lips upturned in an appreciative smile. “I was wondering...”

Hoseok’s arms found their way around the younger man’s waist and he raised an eyebrow, humming softly, “What is it?”

“Would you ever keep a secret from me?” Kihyun asked, blinking innocent eyes at the older man.

Hoseok chuckled, "Depends on the secret. Am I planning you a surprise? I wouldn't tell you if I was."

“Really?” Kihyun pursed his lips, tone lilting on suspicious as he narrowed his eyes at the taller man. Hoseok looked as if he was about to confirm the statement and Kihyun slipped his hand into his pocket, pulling out the badge, letting the silver glint under the light, “So, is this a surprise? When were you going to tell me about this, Officer Shin?”

Suddenly, the blond’s eyes widened and the shock shrouded his body, paling immediately.

“Where——where did you find that?” Hoseok breathed, and Kihyun raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, so it’s really yours?” Kihyun pressed, eyes narrowing at the older man and gritting his teeth. Already knowing the answer, Kihyun braced himself for Hoseok to lie to him——bracing himself for everything he was used to, because no one in his life ever seemed to be honest to him aside from the deceased and Minhyuk.

Hoseok stumbled over his own words, fingers reaching to snatch the badge away, but Kihyun was faster; pulling it away from his hold and glaring betrayed eyes at the older man, heart wrenching with a numbing pain. Giving up on trying to retrieve the badge, Hoseok wrapped his arms back around Kihyun’s body.

“Kihyun, baby,” he whispered, “I’m sorry, I didn’t want you ever to find out, but I love you. I promise I do.”

“That’s not what I asked you, Shin Hoseok.” He hadn’t even noticed that the tears were already welling up in his eyes, despite the burn of anger pulsing through his veins. Maybe, he was about to cry from the welled up frustration, “A cop falling in love with a criminal? That’s fairy tale bullshit.”

Hoseok flinched at the frigidity of his tone, eyes desperately searching Kihyun’s as the younger man’s eyes began to fill with tears, and he inhaled sharply, his grip on Kihyun’s body not relenting, “It’s mine, yes. I wouldn’t lie to you, but I swear I’m truly, madly in love with you, Kihyun. I wouldn’t lie to you, especially not about that.”

“A thief, huh?” Kihyun snapped, bitterly.

“I never said that,” Hoseok protested, desperately holding onto Kihyun as he struggled in his lap.

“Oh, right. You said nothing. You anticipated that you’d get away with all of it,” the younger man hissed, “You thought I’d never find out, so long as you pretended that you loved me.”

And suddenly, it all made sense——how Changkyun was there when they were in a life-threatening moment; how Changkyun was the one who introduced them to his _friends_ ; how just before they started what was potentially the greatest heist of their lives, new people came into their lives.  The young man that they trusted with everything they had: he was probably a cop too, and Kihyun couldn't believe that his paradise was spiralling down in flames.

Changkyun told them that Hoseok and Hyungwon were _good at what they did_. Kihyun’s heart tore itself apart, when he wondered if being _good at what they did_ meant that they were good at making people fall in love with them, before ripping them to pieces with the revelation of all the lies and secrets, when they sat behind bars——in darkness.

The blond’s expression twisted in pain and he almost visibly winced at the accusation, but blinded anger pushed away any pity he had for the older man. Kihyun could hardly look the officer in the eyes and he balled his hands into tight fists, letting anger drive his entire mind.

“I do love you, I swear, Kihyun,” Hoseok whispered, fingers bringing themselves to gently trace his jaw. Kihyun flinched away from the touch, eyes ringed red.

“Bullshit, Hoseok,” Kihyun snarled, pushing the older man and shoving himself off of Hoseok’s lap, stumbling. “A cop can’t fall in love with someone who stands against every single thing they believe in. That’s fairy tale bullshit and you know it. I can’t believe you’d have the nerve to lie to me, even now. How was I so naive to believe that _anyone_ could love someone like me, let alone you?”

“I love you for who you are, not what you do. I love you, believe me, baby please.” the blond’s tone was almost begging.

His heart skipped a beat at the words, but he steeled his mind and pushed away the trickling weakness and he wrapped his arms around himself, suddenly cold——pity boiling in the pit of his stomach and making him want to cry. Hoseok sat frozen where he was, and Kihyun’s heart ached at the idea that he _would_ want the blond to stand up and embrace him——one last time.

But, he hated himself for wanting the comfort from the arms of a liar.

Kihyun felt his heart shattering.

“You know, we could have probably been pretty cute together. Like, I mean, before you turned out to be a lying pile of shit.”

Kihyun threw the badge to the ground, listening to the metal clatter loudly, before turning on his heel and slamming the door behind him, leaving his heart in the suite.

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

****

 

“Hyun, what’s wrong?” Minhyuk asked.

As if everything was finally rushing to him——the rush of all the emotions and the self-pity for have fallen for someone like Hoseok——Kihyun hesitated before speaking, before gritting his teeth, “Min, pack your things, if you really need to take anything with you; change of plans, we’re going to do everything _tonight_.”

Panic clouded Minhyuk’s eyes with a mixture of confusion, but he absently followed the instructions, before raising an eyebrow at the younger man, “Okay, but what’s gotten you so shaken up? Where are Hyungwon and Hoseok?”

"We're going without them," Kihyun breathed, the words not daring to leave his lips, just yet. Minhyuk halted his movements and studied Kihyun for a brief second as if finally letting it click in his head that something was wrong. Something was _terribly wrong_.

“What the hell is going on, Kihyun?”

Hands forming fists again, Kihyun swallowed around the lump in his throat and grit his teeth.

“They’re _cops_ , Minhyuk. Both of them. We need to get the fuck out of here!”

Faltering, the black haired man was suddenly unsure of what he was hearing, but the urgency in Kihyun’s voice and everything about Kihyun reasoned for him to believe him. _His partner over everything._

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

****

Hours after Kihyun stormed out of the room and left Hoseok frozen, horrified and speechless for the second time, it was only when Hyungwon returned to the hotel room after Hoseok dialed his number in a panic saying nothing but: _shit, Hyungwon, he found out_ , that they realized that the thieves slipped out of the open arms.

Letting it slip——their identities——had been _such_ a fault on Hoseok’s end, for having poorly concealed his identification and leaving Kihyun alone in their hotel room. Yet, he trusted the younger man with everything he had, when they’d sworn their love to one another just a single night before everything tumbled downhill.

But, nearly three months of planning the heist with the thieves, Hoseok held his breath and prayed that Kihyun wasn't a mastermind who kept secret backup plans that were equally as flawless as everything they'd gone over. He prayed that he knew the younger man as well as he thought he did because everything was slowly beginning to slip from between their very fingers.

Along with everything they’d ever worked for in their lives.

The very thought of losing everything now was petrifying and Hoseok cursed at himself, with a broken heart, for ever having fallen in love with Yoo Kihyun. Perhaps, Kihyun was right——perhaps, nothing ever lasted, but he’d be damned if he didn’t try.

With the knowledge he possessed, the blond swore that they couldn’t fail their chance at detainment.

So, with heavy hearts, they fled the hotel with their identification and badges fixated on their jackets, intent on capturing what should have been the loves of their lives.

And Hoseok pretended not to see the look in Hyungwon's eyes, as broken as a million shards of glass when they stepped into the evening sky.

The real chase began _now._

 

 ** _(_** +              **_)_**

****

Their mission down the museum’s hallways had proved to them that both Kihyun and Minhyuk were a lot more skilled than they’d predicted——the museum’s security guards lay out cold on the ground, scattered like flies down the hallways of the museum.

A little too late, Hyungwon kicked down the door of the sealed room containing the artifact, and when they’d confirmed that the thieves were inside the room, Hyungwon entered the room first with his hands clasped over his gun.

It was Minhyuk who noticed them first, despite the loud bang of having thrown the door open with such force. But cornered, the thieves had nowhere to run——being interrupted mid-theft hadn’t been a consideration in building the escape plans. The sealed rooms found them with no potential escape and Kihyun audibly cursed under his breath.

In a matter of moments, wrestling both thieves to the ground and cuffing them, despite the struggles. They were bigger than their targets and significantly stronger, though both thieves put up aggressive fights against the restraints.

The officers paused at the same time and looked to one another, before glancing down at their lovers. Kihyun’s eyes glowed with the anger of such betrayal as Hoseok straddled him and kept him down, whilst Minhyuk stared at Hyungwon with disappointed eyes, halting his struggles.

“Hyungwon, baby,” Minhyuk called, eyes scanning Hyungwon’s visage.

The younger man visibly weakened his grip on the older man, wincing at the pet name. Hurt clouded his eyes as he kept Minhyuk down and cuffed, as if every fiber in his body didn’t want to hurt a single hair on Minhyuk——his heart couldn’t bear to hurt someone who taught him how to love.

“I didn’t want to believe him when he told me,” the black haired man continued, laying on his back and sounding too calm for someone who was held and ready for arrest. “I can’t believe it’s actually true. You’re an _officer_ , baby. And you fell in love with someone like _me_ ; I thought it was too good to be true. But, it’s sad, isn’t it?”

Hyungwon almost trembled at the words and he grit his teeth, _“Shut up,”_ he hissed, trying to hold up his stronger image. But, his heart was so weak to the man he was holding down——the twenty-five-year-old officer found himself struggling internally between his morals and his love.

Minhyuk chewed on his lower lip, but said nothing more, moving his eyes over to Kihyun as if asking for their next move. Hyungwon tugged the older man to face him again, preventing the thieves of communication.

Kihyun’s voice rang loudly throughout the room, the demand piercing through the thick air between Hyungwon and Minhyuk. “Hoseok, uncuff me.”

“I can’t do that,” Hoseok replied, shaking his head and closing his eyes for a moment to conceal the flicker of sadness in his dark irises, hoping that Kihyun wouldn’t see the flash of weakness in them, as he held a .22 caliber pistol to Kihyun’s head——threatening, as per protocol.

“You ran away, Kihyun,” Hoseok whispered, pain searing through his tone. “Why couldn’t you have just stayed and pretended not to know anything? We could have had our story play out. I love you, I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you.”

“You’re a fucking cop, Hoseok! What the hell did you think I would have done? You’re a threat to _everything_ I hold dear!” Kihyun yelled, voice breaking from the volume.

Hoseok’s fingers gripped the younger man’s wrists with a single hand and his fingers around the gun tightened, tensing with the overflow of emotions. His voice broke when he spoke, “I wouldn’t have let them hurt you, Kihyun...”

“Hurt me?” Kihyun barked, “I couldn’t care _less_ if they hurt me! They can hurt me all the want, but you _know_ that this is everything I have! This is everything I have——this is worth everything to me. This life, this _everything!_ I have _nothing_ if not this, and you tell me that you’re not going to let _who_ hurt me? You’re already tearing me apart, _Officer_.”

Kihyun's words burned guilt through his skull and Hyungwon looked to them, warily. The younger officer had scrambled back to his feet, carefully holstering his gun, unable to continue looking at Minhyuk without wanting to break to pieces. Minhyuk watched with parted lips, unsure of what to do aside from spectating the scene as he absently pulled at the restraints.

“Can’t you at least loosen the cuffs before they kill me? Give me one last chance to breathe,” Kihyun asked, voice sounding _so_ broken. Hoseok flinched at the tone and he bit his lip.

“They’re not going to hurt you,” he promised, “I won’t let them.”

Kihyun looked at him, eyes glazed over; pitying, _“Please? Make it the last thing I ever ask of you.”_

“Hoseok,” Hyungwon called, warning.

The blond officer inhaled sharply, giving in to his weak heart and loosening the cuffs on the younger man’s wrists; giving in to the emotional words leaving the lips of the man he’d fallen so hard for.

Everything else followed quickly, Kihyun hooked his leg around Hoseok and pushed him to the ground, snatching the gun from the off-guard officer. Kihyun scrambled to his feet, gun in hand, pointed at Hoseok until he backed up far enough to hold the gun with cuffed hands to Hyungwon’s head. The entire room froze in horror at Kihyun’s actions——Hyungwon’s eyes widened at the weapon pressed to his head.

“Hand me your gun, Hyungwon,” Kihyun demanded, cold metal pressed directly to the young man’s skull. Almost shaking, Hyungwon handed over the pistol——having a .22 caliber pistol against his head had persuasive factors.

The thief’s next move was almost unpredictable.

“Uncuff me, Hoseok,” Kihyun hissed, stepping onto Hyungwon’s gun, keeping it away from Hoseok’s reach, “Or else, I’ll pull the trigger.”

“You won’t do it,” Hoseok breathed, though the fear was obvious in his eyes.  Minhyuk’s eyes widened in terror, but his lashes fluttered as he blinked away the shock and allowed himself to trust his partner of six long years.

Kihyun’s eyes glinted dangerously, “You said you loved me, don’t you know me?”

“Kihyun, you’re not going to become a _murderer!_ ” Hoseok exclaimed, though unsure of how to calculate the thief’s next move.

“But, I might unless you uncuff me.” the light haired man snarled. At Hoseok’s obvious hesitance, Kihyun arched an eyebrow at him, “Don’t you want your partner alive?” Kihyun pressed, taunting. Hoseok made to move closer to him and Kihyun’s fingers tightened around the gun, _“Dead or alive, officer?”_

The fear in Hyungwon’s trembling eyes was enough for him to make a decision; Hoseok inhaled sharply and held up his hands in surrender, the keys to the cuffs in his hands and stepping towards Kihyun.

Teeth gritted, the blond uncuffed the younger man’s restraints and Kihyun shook off the metal, before kicking the other gun in Minhyuk’s direction. The black haired man struggled with his cuffs to grab onto the heavy gun and the thieves made eye contact, smirking. And all too quickly, the tables turned on the officers.

Guns held their persuasion and it’s easier to get the officers into cuffs——the thieves holding guns to them with dangerous looks in their eyes and the lack of that _warmth_ both officers were used to being gazed at with. Unarmed, an officer had little to no power, and Hoseok was sure that _backup_ wouldn’t arrive for another set period of time——a little too late.

Minhyuk smiled at Hyungwon, bending over the younger man and leaning down to press a sweet kiss to his lips. Hyungwon’s eyes widened in surprise when their lips met, but as soon as he’d been there, Minhyuk pulled away with a sad look in his eyes. His fingers affectionately curled into Hyungwon’s dark locks.

“It’s a shame that I’m not as good as you thought I was, isn’t it?” he whispered, softly.

Hyungwon bit down on his lower lip, hard and tore his eyes away from Minhyuk.

Just a couple feet away, Kihyun’s gentle fingers traced Hoseok’s jawline and fixed him with pained eyes.

“Hoseok, I loved you. I really think I did. You were the first person to ever make me feel like I mattered to someone in all ways romantic and _sweet._ ” Kihyun exhaled, a hand holding onto the older man’s restraints with a look of regret in his eyes, “And maybe, in another life, I’ll give you all I can. But in this life, I’ll thank you. You taught me that I can’t trust anyone else but myself.”

“Kihyun, don’t say that,” Hoseok pleaded, pulling at the metal around his wrists. “Kihyun, don’t _do_ this.”

The younger man looked at him with pitying eyes, before he rose to his feet and sighing softly. “I think we'll meet again, Officer Shin. Maybe, next time you can be more honest with me and we'll try again?”

_“Kihyun, please——”_

“Sorry, boys, this is emotional and all, but Kihyun and I really have got to run. We’ve got a sale to make. Your backup is coming in a few minutes, right? Sit tight!” Minhyuk called, blowing a quick kiss to the cuffed officers and tugging on Kihyun wrist as they fled the scene together.

Kihyun spared them one last look, but he never turned back, when he fell into step with his partner.

They built an empire off of everything they were made of, and they would never give it up. For anything.


	4. epilogue.

A year later when Minhyuk and Kihyun found their recognition as a blazing glory in the Underground Association, they found themselves settling back in Seoul, South Korea——where the headquarters of the Underground Association resided. Several years later, they would find themselves as the leaders of what they’d once been disciples to.

But, for now, they concealed themselves from the public eye and stayed on a hiatus from their heists, the thieves found themselves reminiscing late summer nights in New York. Laying low was the best of moves after a risky shot and such a close encounter with the officers. They’d needed the time to get off the international radar and if they could convince the world outside of the Underground Association that they were retired, then it was for the best.

Someday, they’d find themselves falling back to the easy momentum of theft——even just as a hobby, because their empire was one of a kind. The ring of renowned thieves do end up admiring the both of them. And sometimes, Kihyun thinks about the previous year, when Shin Hoseok had told him that there was a possibility that thieves could have fan clubs.

It’s late October and they’re twenty-seven, now——Kihyun dyed his hair back to black, if only to conceal himself within the crowds in the streets of Seoul. Recognition in society was still dangerous, a year after everything——recognition in the Association needed to come with trust, else the people underneath them would give them away at any given chance; for power, anything was possible, no matter how tightly knit the Underground seemed to be.

They’d risked everything, but they’d learned that——Kihyun always knew not to trust others and he’d been foolish to let it happen more than once. Trusting Minhyuk was the sole thing he could manage, because Lee Minhyuk was his ride-or-die.

The air around them was chilly, but Kihyun shrugged off the jacket his partner carefully draped over his shoulders.

Standing on the balcony of the high-rise building and gazing down at the bright lights of the city, Kihyun brought a burning cigarette to his lips as Minhyuk stepped next to him and swiped the item away, placing it between his lips, instead. Kihyun rolled his eyes, but reached into his pocket to fish out another cigarette.

It’s after a moment of standing in silence that Kihyun spoke, his voice raspy and low from the damage the cigarettes have caused over the years. After Hoseok and Hyungwon, Kihyun fell back into an unhealthy pattern of smoking to soothe every trickle of stress in his mind.

“Do you ever think about where they are, now?” Kihyun asked, softly.

Minhyuk turned his head, exhaling the smoke to the sky and raising an eyebrow at him.

“Who?” he inquired, though the glint in his eyes promised Kihyun that the older man knew exactly what he was talking about.

Kihyun doesn’t answer him——simply raised his eyes to the sky and wondered silently, if the four of them still looked at the same stars and thought of one another. After everything.

Minhyuk, through the passing year, seemed to hardly remember the romance he shared with the young officer, but there were moments when Kihyun would turn his head and look at the older man, watching as his eyes glazed over and reminiscing——he didn’t need anyone to tell him that Minhyuk was thinking of Chae Hyungwon——sometimes, the younger man would find the black-haired thief playing with a silver bracelet, alone in his room, but he never posed questions about it.

But, still, Minhyuk was someone who could walk through Hell with a smile——so strong——he stepped out of a love like that as if he were standing up from the shallow end of crashing waves.

Kihyun took it harder——drowning in the idea that _maybe_ , honesty would have set such a great distance between them and that it was so much better like this. Had honesty been present, then Kihyun wouldn’t have let himself go and a love wouldn’t have blossomed. But, had that happened, then he wouldn’t have the burning scars which ached whenever he reminded himself of a lost love.

Everything slipped away from him as fast as it came and, this time, it’s enough for him to learn his lesson.

And perhaps, love was as strong as a house of cards, alike to the way they lived their lives. Yet, Kihyun swore he’d never try to build anything back on a foundation so weak.

 _But, it’s a pity,_ his heart reminded him, _that Shin Hoseok was so perfect._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this work. I really hope it was an enjoyable ride and I do apologize for the lack of a happy ending. As always, you can find me via [Twitter](http://twitter.com/yuseokki/)! Screaming is welcome.


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